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Fasil Bogale is an inspiring demonstration of creativity, versatility and an unwavering commitment to service.
Where others have sometimes abandoned their dream of living in The Park in the face of financial challenges, the Ethiopian-born Londoner has simply worked as many as seven different jobs.
‘These challenges were actually the most amazing opportunity to be creative, as I couldn’t wear just one hat. I’m not just Fasil the accountant now. I’m also Fasil the entrepreneur, the pizza guy, the coffee guy, the housing guy… all sorts of things.
‘It allowed me to spread my wings and experience different aspects of the wider community, getting to work with the likes of Gaia Education, Findhorn College, Ecologia, Ekopia… wonderful organisations that helped me to understand the community better.
‘Maybe it goes back to the Findhorn founders and how creative they were willing to be in order to work with the energies. You are not searching for a place of comfort, but of endless creativity. That is the most beautiful thing that came out of it. And yes, it has been challenging!’
Fasil arrived in Findhorn nine years ago and says: ‘My most vivid memory of my first encounter with the community was my fascination with the beautiful way community elder Craig Gibsone held my Experience Week.
‘It was such a diverse group of 18 people from so many different backgrounds and I remember being very impressed that he held us in such a light and loving way. I also remember my first shift with the Park Kitchen team and how wonderful it was to use my hands to feed the community and enjoy giving love to the food.’
His attraction to the principle of work is love in action was so pivotal that he spent the next two years cooking in Park Kitchen.
‘I was part of an amazing, vibrant, loving, highly energetic group of people. They had the ability to hold a nurturing space for guests so that they could experience the kitchen and have fun with the food, and with people from all over the world, while going through whatever they were going through.
‘I was very touched by this beautiful energetic experience. It gave me an idea of “why not?” It felt possible to be part of an alternative experiment of community. It has been most inspiring to live and work with one another and to practise love in action.’
Central to Fasil’s Findhorn journey is his love affair with Sally Donaldson who joined him in marriage in 2014. It was a deeply moving ceremony in the Hinterland area and all the community were invited to join the couple in celebration.
To make the day perfect, Mother Nature blessed the wedding festivities with warm sunshine although it rained immediately before and after the ceremony.
Fasil recalls: ‘After two years it was time for me to leave the Foundation because Sally and I wanted to have a family and cross the bridge into the wider community, where there were so many beautiful people doing amazing work. They were taking their expertise across the world or trying to support the next generation coming through. I’ve been part of an amazing group developing the community in so many different ways. We endlessly ask the vital question: what does it mean to develop community?’
He has been part of an affordable housing initiative, trying to bring in more sustainability and attract younger people.
‘Our team is always trying to help our community become more self-sustaining outside of the Findhorn Foundation, to relieve the Foundation’s challenge of holding so much.
‘The Foundation set me off on my learning journey with work is love in action, and I took it into its next chapter in the wider community where we are now very settled and active.
‘It has been inspiring to know that many people have put a lot of effort into developing the community over the past 60 years, and to feel part of carrying the torch, adding more things that help develop it for the next generation.’
Fasil believes a Findhorn visit would help anyone wanting to explore why something doesn’t feel quite right in their life. ‘My participation in Findhorn programmes gave me the chance to look inwards and ask who and what I am, what have I done so far in my life, and where am I going?’
Fasil Bogale
Accountant + entrepreneur
from Ethiopia & England
First Findhorn visit » 2012
https://celebratingoneincrediblefamily.org/living-with-love-in-action
Still working on it.
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