How do we Live Together?
(Shared Intentions)
The Intention of compassion
As this is an NVC festival, we ask you to arrive with the intention to connect in compassion – to think and act within the consciousness of NVC and to live, as much as possible, in alignment with it’s values and principles. Our intention is the co-creation of this space where everybody finds enough support to let their hearts and wonderings be stirred.
The potential of this festival lies in our ability to lean into one another and allow ourselves to need and be needed.
The Intention of Co-Creation
There will not be a pre-planned program for this festival. We would like to lean into something we call “rhythms-of-the-day”, including circles (morning and evening), community singing, the practice of gratitude, village times, working/empathy groups and of course slots for workshops as needed. As such we ask you to come with the intention of joining us in co-creating each day anew.
We will have a basic structure for the day which will include a morning and evening circle as well as slots for offerings and requests – and aside from this we invite you to join in creating the camp that you want to be a part of.
Please come with an awareness that this festival is not about “teaching” NVC – our wish is for it to not be a workshop-heavy space as we trust that most learning happens in the in-between spaces and conversations. You are welcome though to request certain topics.
Like in previous years there will be various levels of NVC experience present at the festival. If you come completely new to NVC, we will of course help to facilitate an introduction to NVC.
The Intention of Village-Mindedness
The Work
It is our longing that the people attending the festival come with the intention of creating our village together during our time – as such we are not creating specific weekly roles for those coming along – we are instead looking at exploring together a new concept of ours – that of working groups.
We see work as a key way of bringing and binding communities together – not only with one another but also with the land and the place they find themselves – as such we would love to invite a time slot each day for “working groups”.
This could look different for each group on each day – it could be chopping and gathering firewood, harvesting apples and pears from the garden, cleaning and mowing the lawn, or digging the ground the plant seeds – and all done whilst sharing life stories or holding empathic listening for one another or simply sharing the silence.
Kitchen Volunteers
We invite people into the gift of food making. Our yummy loving Food chef Harry is navigating the kitchen, and we will be inviting a joining in from various people at various times throughout the week.
Just as the work outside, making beauty, sowing seeds, or thanking the woods is of importance to the community – so too does the village need your time and work in the chopping, peeling and slicing of the foods we shall be sharing.
As such – for the kitchen time we will also be asking for and helping to create working groups each day – as well as possibly requesting extra kitchen volunteers at other times of the day as well as for washing and clearing after each meal.
The children
This is a family festival and the kids are welcome in our midst. We ask that, for our time together, all of us take on an awareness of the small people around us, even if they are not yours.
In a village environment we know that we are all deeply and intrinsically connected, and that the child of one person in the village is also connected to us as well – we ask that you take a pause to check in with, support and be mindful of both the children and the adults around you and, though we will be speaking to this in the opening circle, to allow yourself to “see” what is needed in your immediate space – to cultivate a village-mindedness.
#3 Austrian NVC Summerfestival 