Zimmerman and Coyle explain some more about the nature of Council :

 The principle of interdependence is further supported by the quality of leadership that emerges in Council. The long prevalent dominator model of hierarchical authority tends to be replaced by a strong commitment to partnership, analogous to that practiced in certain traditional earth-cherishing cultures. 

 As in the ancient circles of elders (and perhaps in the mystery schools as well), each Council member comes to know they bring a piece of the truth to the circle - essential in itself, but only a part of the whole. The passion of our personal vision is shared without attachment and then our position is released to the larger truth of the circle. When Council is working, we all experience this truth without any threat to personal identity and without the “tyranny of the collective.” Everyone recognizes what’s really happening and sees the path to “right action,” often more or less at the same time, and usually accompanied by the special joy inherent in the co-visioning process.

Simply put, the essence of Council lies in direct participation with our cohorts in the realization of (the circle’s) wholeness. The interdependence among members of the Council then becomes a deeply felt reality that frees us from the bondage of self-absorption and opens the door to spirited co-creation.

The ensouled glass pieces I have made for Forest Councils are seeds of intention.  What if we reached a stage to step up in our care and presence to form Indigenous Councils to include both human and non-human (nature beings) participation to collaborate and co-create a healing movement for our forests, rivers, mountains, oceans?  How could our Councils look like, and feel like?  The ensouled glass pieces tell a visual story of how our Forest Councils could look like when we include all the relevant partners, of all colours, forms and shape to sit in a circle with a common purpose : to heal our environment, our relationships, our history, and our own hearts.

When Shigako and I arrived at her family home in her childhood village, Kase in Aomori, one of the first things we did was visiting our ancestral grave-site.  There is something about this practice, as if to say, we are here to honour you.  We don't know very much about the worlds beyond death.  We can only know the reality of this world with our senses.  So with all our senses , we are here to connect with your lives, you who have gone beyond.

Shigako took me on a walk about, guiding me to the village grave site, where the bones of our ancestors rest, as do those of other village folks, other kins.  Solemnly she found the grave.  Written on it was Kidachi Mangoro, her grandfather, the sake maker, a martial artist, a lake restorer.  I never met him, but I had spent time with mother's grandmother, Mangoro's life-partner, Kaa as my mother and her sisters addressed her charmingly. 

My mother and her sisters are full of stories of their ancestors.  Just the other day when we put a dish of pickles on the table, they said 'oooh, Kaa's pickles were so superb.  They were even thinking to make a business of her pickles, even to take them so far away as Tokyo to sell them, they were that good.' In my mind, when I heard this story I conjure up the thought of her excellent partnership with the bacterial world to make excellent fermented food.  My grandfather must have had a similar partnership with the bacterial kingdom to have been a sake maker in his time.  We still have the huge wooden barrels in which he made his potent brews in the family workshop.

​Mangoro had a keen connection with nature.  Apparently he had a hand in restoring several large water bodies in the areas they lived.  My mother tells me how he used to go out frequently to work on the lakes.  She took me to a large body of water, a lake in their village one day.  This is one of the projects he worked on.  He had the foresight to see that restoring the lake would increase the biodiversity and the life-force of the land as a whole.  The family received a letter of recognition from none other than the Emperor of Japan, for Mangoro's earth healing activities.  

Going to a grave-site may feel like an end of the line, like you go so far and no more, because the dead don't talk.  But I feel they do.  I felt a great kinship, like coming home.  I felt an unbroken bond with Mangoro and Kaa.  So he was an earth healer too, and so was she in her own ways, in her weird and wonderful partnership with the bacterial kingdom.  Sometimes I feel the ancestors are not too far, and death is not the end of the road.  It may just be the beginning of a wonder-filled adventure.  How strange that I am finding myself treading the path that my ancestors have trail blazed, but in other parts of the world.  How mysterious death is.  How wonderful to be alive, to reconnect with the ancestors, to know that they return, in ways I couldn't know, but can only feel their presence in my life.

I met Fatima-san (Suomi Sekiya) in Findhorn about 5 years ago.  She joined our 1001 Angels mosaic creations on our first day of the project, and her last day of a two-week stay in Findhorn.  By some good fortune our paths just crossed.  I was immediately curious about her, since she had so uniquely expressed two cultures I also felt a part of, namely a Sufi tradition in Japan.  I felt we have so much to explore together, but at that time we had very little time to invest in our explorations.  When the opportunity presented itself to visit her in Nagano prefecture, I approached her.  I was delighted to know that she could take a day off her work, which happened to be her birthday, to be with me and her partner Yaqin Nirdosh (Yuya Sato), and the Sacred Mountain of Hijiriyama, which she is a guardian of.  Both her name and her partner's name, Yaqin evoke deep feelings for me, as they are from my native tongue, Farsi.  Yaqin means certainty, Fatima, purity.  So together they speak of Pure Certainty to my soul.

Meeting Fatima and Yaqin at the Hijiriyama, which literally means Sacred Mountain, felt like a chord of destiny's been tugged.  I also found out they are both web-creators.  Since I've been looking for web-masters for Trees for Hope, I asked them if they could make our website, which they delightfully said yes!  My heart did a little dance at the top of the hill where we were standing to admire the view of the expansive North and South Japan Alps Mountains in Nagano.

Later on her birthday she took me to a remarkable restaurant called Momo, which means peach.  There she gave me her meishi, business card.  On it she lists a few things she offers the world as a way of her unique expression.  They include : Herbalist, Psychic Healer, Holistic Therapist.  As well she lists Meditation and Prayer, Deep Ecology, Permaculture, Co-Creation with Nature.  

Yaqin offers on his meishi (business card) : Meditation and Co-Creation Space.  His business name is Nirvana Lab.  I feel like I have just connected with two dear kindred spirits, on my last day in Japan!

http://nirvana-lab.com
http://devafatima.com
http://libernaturae.com
http://nuuralanuur.com

When I reached home, in time for my call with Aref, I was shocked to be hung up on the call.  'Something's come up, can't talk to you right now,' read the text on my phone display.  I felt a space that was warm and receptive, indeed as divinely creative as Chrystal is to me, closed down.  And then came the breathlessness of death.  My relationship with Aref died with this missed appointment, with the missed opportunity to communicate truly.  I felt I lost a friend and colleague I loved as dearly as my own beloved son.    

There are only two feelings.  Love and fear.
There are only two languages.  Love and fear.
There are only two activities.  Love and fear.
There are only two motives, two procedures, two frameworks, two results.  Love and fear.
Love and fear.

A Common Prayer, Leunig

The Soil Alchemy, a project to transform our food waste to compost in Northern Iran, is on my mind.
This quote by Leunig sums up my experience with our project.

I hear the land 
and understand people
here in Tatvan
I delight in a language
born as a twin to my mother tongue
then the two languages, Farsi and Kurdi
flowed down the river of time
changing in accents 
​sounding sweetly familiar in my ears
my heart is here
I belong to the earth
and one with her people
I am not a foreigner
there are no foreigners
we are one people
belonging to the earth

I have adopted a policy and practice and want to invite you to join me too. My policy is water should be free for all. So I don't buy water, especially bottled water in a plastic, or any other drinks in a plastic bottle either. This way I take responsibility for my consumption and contribution of plastic to the environment. I also refuse to buy water and make sure that my water bottle is filled wherever I go. I share this message with people in shops and restaurants and get a lot of smiles when I talk about water being free. People everywhere agree with me. I hope we can practice this together.  Why don't you get hold of your own bottle of water and make your water free too.

Notice the difference between the right and left side of the fence.  The area on the left is protected from deer and sheep grazing and young trees are regenerating naturally as the land heals itself.  Outside the fence, on the right, overgrazing by deer and sheep prevents the growth of any new trees and the land is held static in a state of  suppressed ecological succession and greatly reduced biological productivity.  

This area on Glen Strathfarrar inspired Alan to fence off large areas on Glen Affric to naturally regenerate and Trees for Life was born in 1989 with help from Findhorn Foundation and the Forestry Commission.