This is the purpose that was the focus for the special Transformation Game we played during the  Community’s 60th birthday week at Findhorn.

Individually and collectively, we intend to
* honour, bless and lay the past to rest
* awaken to the spirit that is calling each and all of us
* and step into the future that is seeking to take shape in and through us

Over 100 people gathered in the Universal Hall for an evening and full day of play exploring what this purpose meant for us both individually and collectively, and how we could bring it alive and actualize it in our lives.

We worked around a large path on the floor, and on each move of the Game a different player (randomly chosen from a bowl of names) came forward to play for the group and focus the experience that the rest of the participants then explored in a variety of ways, sometimes individually on their own, sometimes in small buddy groups of three, sometimes sharing with the group as a whole

About half-way through the Game, the Focus Player of the moment landed on an Insight Square. We had just moved into the Emotional Level.

The card he took was “You face what’s in front of you squarely, openly and courageously, and give thanks for all you receive.”

As I look at the patterning that emerged through the Game, this feels to me to be a pivotal point. A moment of coming into the present, being with whatever is in front of us, opening to it with gratitude.

Previously, we had all worked with the Setback: “It’s all too much for me. I just can’t handle it.” It had come in the first move on the path, which was to a Miracle Square. The Player chose to go to a Service Square and was asked to serve the community by taking time to focus on an area of difficulty and to transform it without pain. What came forward was this Setback.

We all looked at how we could serve our community (whether this community at Findhorn or a community we were part of elsewhere) by allowing a Miracle to transform this pattern as it shows up in our personal lives and interactions. What have we learned from handling this in the past that we could apply in the present? Can we be open to the movement of grace and healing in our lives, particularly when feeling overwhelmed?

Something began relaxing, something opened, something eased. Perhaps we were doing some laying of the past to rest.

The next move of the Game was to a Free Will square. A choice to make, an initiative to take. The Player used his will to choose an Insight to help with his/our physical health. “You express your feelings clearly and responsibly.” Yes. Recognise and appreciate where we are already doing this; build on our capacity to do this more. And recognise also that we can do this when we feel things are too much for us, rather than going into either melt-down or disengagement. That will cause less stress to our bodies, and be good for our health, both individually and collectively.

The Universal Feedback card that came as a result of this choice was that perseverance brings good fortune. So – something to keep practicing.

And we moved up a level.

And from all this came that pivotal Insight: “You face what’s in front of you squarely, openly and courageously, and give thanks for all you receive.”

In his book “Gratefulness: The Heart of Prayer”, Brother David Steindl Rast, a Benedictine monk (and one of the Fellows of the Findhorn Foundation) writes about how any situation we find ourselves in is a ‘given situation’, and that implicit in the word ‘given’ is ‘gift’. And the proper response to gift is gratitude.

What if we could see all the conditions of our lives as gift?

Our Group Angel was Creativity, drawn on the first move of the Game when we were ‘born’ and moved from the Source onto the Path. It feels that being open to and grateful for the given situations in front of us allows for creativity to flow and new possibilities to open up.

We all spent time coming present in ourselves to what is in front of each of us, and our sense of what is in front of our community.

What was in front of us in the Game, waiting for us on the next move, was another Miracle Square. More grace seeking to enter. Perhaps that is part of the spirit that is calling us. An active engagement and co-creation with the spirit of grace.

This time the Angel of Peace joined us, encouraging us to cultivate peace in our lives.

And then it seemed we were asked to revisit and strengthen some of the previous learnings in the Game. The next two moves brought a Setback and then a Stress Square – again, pointing our attention to spaces and times where we could experience overwhelm.

The Setback was around victimization, feeling a victim of outer circumstances, often of traumatic early childhood experiences. One of the Awareness tokens used to help clear the Setback was ‘Outrageousness’, which the Player chose to see as ‘getting the rage out’.

Together, in movement and sound, we gave expression to our feelings of outrage.

Elizabeth Kübler Ross says that all anger is saying “No!” Where do we need to say that “No”? And can we say it clearly and responsibly? Developing a capacity clearly to say ‘no’ enables us to say a more full-bodied ‘yes’ to life and to what matters.

And again – can we stand in the face of past traumatic experiences, bring them in front of us, and recognise, give thanks for and say yes to the gifts that have been and are in them?

Then we got in touch with where and how stress shows up in our lives… and how often simple actions like going for a lunchtime walk in nature can bring healing.

Towards the end of the Game, the Player took the Insight card: “Thank you for daring to love”. He – and we all – looked at where this had been true in the past, where it was true in the present, and where and how we could step into this in the future. For the Player, the future step – still a bit uncertain – was to love himself more, as well as to establish a more conscious relationship with Gaia, held in its love, extending love to it.

Is this the future seeking to take shape in and through us? An increased experience and expression of love? The Angels of Wisdom and Integrity suggested yes, and took us on to the Spiritual Level, where we were blessed with the quality of Inspiration.

Then, as if to underline the love message, the final ‘Bridging Insight’ was “I love and accept myself exactly as I am.” The Player walked along the Game Path on the floor, through Miracles, Depressions, Insights, Setbacks, all the highs and lows of her life, loving and accepting herself through all of them, making the statement out loud.

Then another Player, randomly chosen, did the same.

Then we all, in our imaginations, walked along our personal life pathways, bringing love and acceptance of ourselves into the different conditions and experiences of our lives. Finally, in the buddy groups of three, each person spoke to each of the others saying “I love and accept myself exactly as I am” and hearing from each of the others “I love and accept you exactly as you are.”

And then, after we had shared some of our insights and learnings from the Game, we took an Angel of Integration. It was the Angel of Play.

Among other things, the text for the Angel of Play says: “Play is at the heart of our creativity and animates our being in our most carefree moments. It helps us live with absurdity, paradox, and mystery. It feeds our childlike joy and wonder. It keeps our search for meaning grounded and on to earth….
Play is an antidote to stress…
Play engages us with the imaginal realm and supports and enriches our metabolization of life. It is integral for generating insights and effortless realizations. Play literally gives us a ‘breather’ – restoring our vitality at a core level.”

As Joy Drake said, the Game is like a time release capsule, which unfolds itself through us over time. It’s not a one-off event. It needs to be practiced and lived every day. It gives us a roadmap, a path of practice.

So these to me are the steps that our Game experience asks us to cultivate:

* Open to creativity with the help of the Angel of Creativity. Embrace our creatorship.
* Expect miracles and open to grace.
* Serve our community by transforming the pattern of feeling “It’s all too much for me; I just can’t handle it.” Recognise what is too much for me, without blame or judgement, and take responsibility for that.
* Use our will to choose to share our feelings clearly and responsibly.
* Persevering with this will be good for our physical bodies (both our individual bodies and our collective body), and will bring good fortune.
* Face what’s in front of us squarely, openly and courageously. Give thanks for it.
This will allow us to open more to grace and to further miracles, and open the space also to the Angel of Peace.
* Cultivate the presence of peace in our lives.
This will give us increased capacity to deal with and transform areas of challenge and difficulty, including feeling victimised and stressed.
* Dare to love.
* Strengthen Integrity and Wisdom
* Open to inspiration
* Love and accept ourselves and others exactly as we are
* Remember to play

The Angel of Creativity was with us throughout the Game. It moved through us in different ways, encouraging us to explore our creatorship in different arenas. In the end, it seems to me that the most important thing we are being encouraged to create is Love. With large doses of gratitude. That will enable us to bless and accept past and present and future, to open to the spirit that is calling us, and give shape to the future that is seeking to emerge in and through each and all of us.

Finally, a quote from David Whyte on Gratitude:
“As we learn to give thanks for all of life and death, for all of this given world of ours, we find a deep joy. It is the joy of trust, the joy of faith in the faithfulness at the heart of all things. It is the joy of gratefulness in touch with the fullness of life.”