Community Engagement &
Creating our Collective Autobiography
As we honour the past…
We meet in the present…
And together we step into the future
Individually and collectively, we intend to honour, bless and lay the past to rest by telling our stories; awaken to the spirit that is calling each and all of us and share it with each other; and step into the future that is seeking to take shape in and through us, as we learn more about and from each other.
We are working together to create a comprehensive record of our Community history, written by and large by those who created it. Here you will find stories about our establishment and growth, our successes and our challenges, and much more. But that’s not all: we are also committed to community engagement. Strengthening “CommUnity” is the core impulse for what has now become an exciting community endeavour: Celebrating One Incredible Family in all its aspects. To read more about us and this website, click here. For tips about how to use this site, click here.
On 17th November 1962, Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean arrived at a windswept caravan park in North-East Scotland and, though they did not realise it at the time, founded a community that would grow immensely over the following years.
In the decades from those first beginnings to the present, there have been many people who have made profound connections with this Community and have had a significant impact on its development.
This site seeks to tell their stories, along with many others, and make them available as a constant and long-lasting treasury that will help to trace the Community’s development, from the start, through the present, and into the years to come, creating a comprehensive and inclusive story-based record of our history – a ‘collective autobiography’ of our Community. Read Our Stories.
At times, we are adding new stories to this site at quite a rate, and the total number of stories that this site encompasses is expanding rapidly.
We’re highlighting the latest stories to be added here: come back regularly to keep abreast of the new stories we have to tell.
We aim to support engagement with our Community on all levels – whether you are hearing about us for the first time or you are one of the many who have been part of building this Community.
There are many different ways you can join in, including participating in our Community activities, coming to visit us, getting in touch with other people in your area with Community connections… and of course we would love to read your stories! Here’s more on some of those possibilities.
Photo boards have been a longstanding and well-loved feature in our Community: a way to see who is part of the Community, enjoying the heart connections with those we consider part of our “One Incredible Family”*. Here we continue this tradition through our Gallery. It is also a way to honour those who have built this centre in the past.
And if you are a former or current Findhorn Foundation Community member or co-worker, or someone who has lived here, was born here, or built a special connection with the Community over the years, you may well have stories to tell. How you came to be here, for example; what you did or do here; and the impact the Community had upon you. In this case, we encourage you to become a member of One Incredible Family and take your honoured place in the Gallery.
*The name “One Incredible Family” comes from a song written in the early 1970s by noted Australian musician, the late Hans Poulsen, during his time in the Community. Learn more of that story here.
