{"id":3513,"date":"2019-12-13T11:24:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T11:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=3513"},"modified":"2019-12-18T13:01:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T13:01:00","slug":"unplanned-and-unexpected-a-vision-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/unplanned-and-unexpected-a-vision-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Unplanned and Unexpected – A Vision of the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Life\u2019s journey has no beginning or end yet events, like seasons and birthdays, mark its progress. So, in anticipation of astraea turning 20, and to say \u201cthank you\u201d to all the people who had helped us along the way, we thought about having an exposition of our work and a party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\npeople around the world have helped and supported us, so, while we\nwould gather here at Ballin Temple, we wanted to share with everyone\nwho couldn\u2019t come. We planned to broadcast the event on the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We planned to share a broad, experiential perspective on our adventure over the past two decades. We\u2019d give a walk around the vegetable plots, tool shed and so on offering little demos such as digging, harvesting, chainsawing, splitting logs and so on. Then we\u2019d have a chat in The Tent on big picture perspectives like holonics, metaphysical dynamics, money, nature, consciousness and more. Followed by \u201ctea\u201d and chat (to include drinks, snacks and music).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Invitations were sent to everyone. It was posted on social media and soon people heard about it before we told them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the day drew closer preparations were made,\nincluding setting up a whole new capability: mobile live-stream and\nglobal webinar. And then there was the set-up for the garden tour,\nthe presentation and the party \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signs that the universe had a different agenda in\nmind started to occur\nthe day before when an expected piece of hardware failed to arrive. \nOn the day, the weather started to turn bad, but that hadn\u2019t\nstopped us before. Then at 14.55 when we established the mobile\nbroadband connection, \u2026 it failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It failed again. A different device? Fail. \nAnother device? Fail. A different carrier? Fail. I could not hold a\nsignal. After half an hour of frustrated attempts, I gave up and\njust used the normal broadband. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was fine. And frankly the weather was atrocious. The universe had just been trying to tell me to skip the walkabout and have the chat with my friends, who are wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ursula had driven from Cork the day before with Fiacra (Saxman) and Albi. They’d been helping set up all day. Pam, suffering from an unfamiliar onset of vertigo the day before, had been sweeping and preparing refreshments. Jaspar had got logs in for the stove and was ready to shoot the live-stream. He’d built an innovative shelf to carry the laptop, which would be doing all the processing and connecting between camera, mic and mobile broadband. And he’d been helping to resolve the failing connection – cool, calm and collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we’d been wrestling with the failing broadband, Jerry had arrived, despite the sleeting rain and chilly breeze. What a dude! Jerry’s engineering shop had helped most people around here facing some agricultural machinery ailment. And Katherine arrived bearing gifts and apologising because Joe couldn’t make it – he’d had to go to manage an emergency at work! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard arrived with Michael all the way from Clonmel. That’s nearly a two hour drive. Richard was a pioneer of organic agriculture in Ireland starting nearly 40 years ago. He’d been one of the few people I had enlightened conversations with when we started our adventure. His friend Michael turned out to have fascinating perspectives brought from his time living in aboriginal communities of Alice Springs, Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, with friends and family chatting around the stove and getting tea, I finally listened to the message from the universe: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Relax! Have a chat.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting down in front of the laptop, we joined the amazing Hazel Henderson, Oonagh Harpur and Ivan Konig, who had been chatting patiently on-line in America and UK while I sorted the IT in Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hazel has been a pioneer of ethical investing and appropriate technology for decades. She’s advised Presidents since the 1960s. She has inspired thousands of change makers. She offered enthusiasm and encouragement for our work back in 2003 when everyone else was chasing a Celtic Tiger or Dot Com Boom. Ivan reached out when he heard about Common Sense<\/a><\/em> and ordered copies to share with friends and colleagues. He’s been a great friend to bounce around ideas with, encouraging us for years. Oonagh has pioneered innovations in board rooms to improve ethics. We were phenomenally lucky to have them join us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you Hazel, Oonagh and Ivan for your friendship and help. Without your encouragement we would have given up long ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our conversation touched on faith, money, technology, energy, consciousness and more. You can view it on-line here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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