I've mentioned the High Heathercombe Centre before here, then here and here too but I've never took the time to actually write about it.
In this post I want to share my experience of High Heathercombe, how it impacted my life and what an important place it is for building the future we all would like to live in.
How It All Started...
I first arrived to HH (High Heathercombe) in November 2016 to attend the Permaculture Design Course which runs twice a year, in November and March.
Permaculture Design Course is a 16 days residential course taught by very experienced teachers:
- Aranya and Klaudia van Gool in November
- Aranya and Caroline Aitken in March
Those of you that don't know of Permaculture I send to Wikipedia.
Here's the short description from Wikipedia:
Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems.
To me, Permaculture is using our Human intelligence while interacting with the World. Every decision we make has an impact on our environment. How we design houses, how we design cities, our transportation, the way we grow food...
But this is not the post on Permaculture right?
HH is an educational Centre that facilitates a number of courses, retreats, camps, creative gatherings, support group gatherings and so much more.
I strongly encourage anyone to have a closer look at the courses and retreats offered by HH. I think anyone can find something that can deeply resonate with them and enrich their life. Whether it's by the new skills they'll acquire, new friends they'll make or simply by the experience of the community that HH provides.
HH is run by Mel. She's an amazing being that greatly influenced my life. A person I consider a true friend which, at least in the World I live in, is very hard to come by. Mel has a great heart and with love and passion spent over 10 years, developing the Centre into what it is today, touching peoples hearts, facilitating change and growth, supporting...
Giving...
Gratitude
I'm deeply grateful to Mel for the opportunity to become part of the tribe, for making me feel at home at the Centre and most of all for offering me her friendship. Although the PDC is long gone, I'm still in and out of HH, volunteering at courses, retreats, having fun, and simply being.
Right now I'm here at HH volunteering at the Foot To Earth, a dance camp which is about to start. We set up the place, then there's work in the kitchen. Many lovely people and many will still arrive.
Again, it's hard to express the amount of love and gratitude I have for Mel.
The Change
Going back to November, it was at my PDC that I decided to quit my job (working quite comfortably as a Programmer, selling away my time for good money), get on my bicycle and come to HH to volunteer on the next PDC course, with no plans for what comes after... Been homeless since :) I wrote about it here if you missed it.
Being here at the HH among all the lovely people acted as a catalyst for me. This kind of change was what I needed, and to be honest, been preparing for for some time already. I have never been comfortable in this "Life In The System" and had made myself homeless before.
It was a time to change and I've made the decision. What I intended to do was to quit the job, get rid of some of the stuff I accumulated and cycle to Dartmoor, to HH to volunteer on the next Permaculture Design Course in March. I believed that the next steps would reveal themselves as and when needed.
Since then I volunteered on a number of retreats, camps and courses including the aforementioned PDC and I'm due to volunteer on the next PDC in November as well. I've met a lot of people, to which I'm also grateful for influencing me, and I've had great experiences.
I've grown as a person. I've changed a lot about the way I live my life. Finding a sense of purpose and direction is one of those ways.
I'm still searching for my unique way of serving this world, and I feel that it becomes clearer every day.
Now, I just simply live my life and enjoy the time I was given, cultivating self-acceptance, self-love, trust and gratitude.
Thank You Mel... Sincerely!