I read Paul Hawken’s book, The Magic of Findhorn in 1976 or ’77, while at home in Toronto, and really enjoyed and resonated with it. So in the spring of 1977, when I was visiting relatives with a friend, in England, (where I was born and lived till age 11,) I thought, ‘Why don’t I go up to Scotland and visit Findhorn?’ So I phoned the community and the fellow who answered the phone said, well, we have a tour every day at 2 o’clock, or a one week Experience Week. I thought, well, I’m not going all the way to Scotland for a one hour tour, let’s do the Experience Week. So when I said to him, “My friend and I would like to come for the Experience Week,” he said, “the next openings are in two weeks.” “That won’t work, we’re flying back to Canada then. Is there any possibility we could come next week?” He hesitated, then said he’d put us in touch with Shirley Brown, the focaliser of Accommodations. So when I spoke with Shirley, she said, if my friend and I didn’t mind sharing with two other women, we could come for the next week. Perfect timing!

We took the overnight train from London, and when we arrived at Forres we were picked up by the yellow bus, Daisy, or Daphne, and driven to Cluny where we would stay for our week. As I was stepping off the bus, one foot on the ground, and the other foot on the bus step, looking out over the beautiful Moray Firth Golf Course, and the Cairngorm Mountains in the distance, a voice in my head said, ‘This will be your new home’. Don’t be ridiculous I thought, I’m flying back to Toronto next week and I’ve got a good job in a massage therapy clinic. And forgot about that moment.
My friend and I really enjoyed the Experience Week and became good friends with our roommates and the others.

And then, half way through the week, I met a Community member, and we fell in love. He and three others would be focalising a four month course, The Essence of Findhorn, that November, 1977. And did seem like the right next step. So I returned to Toronto, registered for Essence, and worked to save as much as I could, sold my car in the Fall, and returned to Findhorn in November 1977.

Essence was an amazing experience, and afterwards, I became a member, and ended up focalising housekeeping at The Park, but I remained living at Cluny, even though my boyfriend and I had broken up months before.

It wasn’t until many years later that I recalled that moment of guidance? Intuition? Prophecy? ‘This will be your new home’. I’ve been connected with the friends I made there and since for many many years, and continue to be.