A journey in the mountains, how my Possibility Team sprung
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead
Far away in the Pyrenees, I went hiking with a dear friend to recover from an illness and breathing difficulties.
I didn’t realize that this was the very day I was going to give birth to my Possibility Team, and indeed something was born that day.
Often when I feel overwhelmed by a deep fear, the result is that my system overheats and I end up sick. We were both dragged and silently crawled up the mountain through the dense vegetation.
A beautiful waterfall on the left helped us recover from our dizziness and the heavy silence. The beauty of the decaying forest evoked strange spirits. Small animals were hiding. The clouds hardly let the sun shine.
We climbed the mountain, then lit a fire by a lake. After rescuing a little girl who had frozen her feet in the icy lake water to cross, we cooked potatoes over the fire. The evening was silent, but starry, and the cows brought their share of bells, tinkling benevolent presences.
The next day was a feast! The rosy dawn caressed the grassy, rugged slopes of the valley sides. I’ve taken very little time in my life to watch the sun rise, which is what I did that morning. As soon as I woke up, I noticed that my difficulty in breathing was no longer there, and my torpor had already dissipated a little.
Gremlin feeding day: coffee, chocolate cake, judging the valley, the people and the whole Earth, not deciding, changing identity for a few minutes. We started the climb with a new energy, even though the sun had become scorching and the slopes steep. Being part of a Possibility Team is a bit like that, a real expedition leading to the Nothing. And then the unexpected effort brings other surprises.
We get lost just enough to see a marmot taking refuge in its burrow. Sparkling, iridescent rock debris. The gentle flow of water, as if to cleanse and calm us, but also to give us power and energy. The grass is green, the valley gentle in its curves and winding in its paths.
On the way up, I record the first words of my book on Inner Permaculture: a challenge! For a while this irritated my companion, who took the lead, then joined in with the conversations and the torrents of words that came out of my mouth and rushed into this little all-purpose box called a smartphone.
The slope is steep. Some people ask me about my “barefoot” shoes, and I’m delighted to explain to them how it aligns the vertebrae and corrects posture. I’ve had a number of people take to walking — just like bare feet (the soles allow direct contact with the ground: guaranteed foot reflexology!).
We stopped on a ridge overlooking ‘Lac Bleu’, the sun at its zenith. He asked me how to be more ‘centred’, and I explained to him, using practical exercises: breathe, take up your pieces of attention that reside in other spaces (past, future, friends, situations…) and collect them as if you had a magnet in front of your eyes that was attracting them, one by one…
Then, use your breath to feel in your belly, between your hips, right in the middle of your boddy (vertebraes and navel) your gravity center. Then put your energetic center in your gravity center. Breathe.
Declare a grounding cord going to the center of the Earth. It has to be thick enough (6cm) and flexible (you can move, and take action while being grounded). What is its color (don’t think too much — say what is obvious)?
Then declare your personal bubble of space. It has to be only your energy.
Then, once we’d finished centring, anchoring and bubbling, we set off down the slopes, some of which were still covered in snow, towards ‘Lac Bleu’ (the Blue Lake). Nature continues to inspire me: I pass it on to my recorder — what magic!
We stopped at the bottom and didn’t know what to do: go back? carry on? We return. Sharp bends, shiny rocks, changing weather. The alternating fog and sun give the mountain slopes a mystical quality.
We stop off at a waterfall, the perfect place to cool off as the mist surrounds us in a protective cocoon. An unexplained moment of blessing, the mist dissipates as soon as we finish our swim. The monks of Bhutan say that the misty valleys allow the spirits of Nature to appear and that majestic battles can take place before our very eyes.
The invigorating water reminds me of the pleasure of being human, feeling, perceiving beyond the eyes, vibrating with all my heart. Sensitive to energies, here and there I perceive gnomes, goblins, fairies and dragons emerging from the mountains. I have no words to describe them other than poetry. One of my teachers used to say “I’m completely switched on, which is better than being switched off”. In a disillusioned Western society, dull and dead of any desire for the future, dreaming is an affront: shameless witchcraft to be what I am!
The descent is sumptuous, the mountain looking like a Japanese print. The singing paths branch off like a shower of small streams strewn with pebbles.
As we approach the forest, we exchange heatedly, as if the return to ‘civilisation’ is already going to be hard, or as if the accumulated tension is going to bring out the words: Responsibility.
A Possibility Team is not a Team for Problems, otherwise it would be a Team of Problems or Solutions, it’s a Team of Possibilities. To take back your power, there’s nothing like taking full and complete Responsibility for your life: “How am I responsible for what happens to me? “stop blaming others” “change this to see, what’s going on?” “what do you feel? what’s in your gut feeling? “What are you missing?” and other sharp, precise questions littered our way home.
Human life is much more than a succession of survival, after survival, after survival… ad infinitum.
That’s why Possibility Teams should be available everywhere — there’s already one in the Pyrenees, and more Rage Clubs to come.
Because this anger allows me to move forward, to generate things other than “political correctness”, “right-thinking” and “surface happiness” and to let my Being and the people I come into contact with come to the fore.
Fighting for our lives, without restraint, to see our dreams come true seems to me to be the only alternative to survival. I can’t do that without such a Possibility Team, dedicated to mutual success — while of course being a conscious asshole, ready to question and challenge.
The battle for life has only just begun!
A Possibility Team make me think about this disctinction by Looby Macnamara in her book 7 ways to think differently with Permaculture :
“When we have a frame of finding solutions as our default position, whenever we encounter problems we can be creative, optimistic, realistic and proactive. We feel more empowered, enthusiastic, confident and resilient because we awaken ourselves to the challenge.
We become resourceful, not taking what we have found for granted but using it carefully and wisely in new, innovative ways.
Instead of looking at a situation and wondering what we stand to gain from it, we look to see what we can contribute. Instead of finding blame we take responsibility that leads us into action. We shift from ‘I can’t to ‘I can’ or perhaps together, ‘we can’. Together we can tackle the bigger challenges that humanity is currently presented with.” — Looby Macnamara
Without stopping — if only to feel, to reflect with Possibilities— to seek, to look for open doors to let life through, where modernity has endeavoured to destroy it.
Reinventing a future that is viable, liveable and even where dreams can be expressed and grow is what we are doing by taking care of the second Permaculture ethic: taking care of our humanity, strengthening ourselves, empowering ourselves and deploying our non-material value: creating links, extraordinary spaces, Transformation where we thought it was impossible, re-illuminating everyday life shattered by apathy and denial.
Thoughts as tools to drill into the concrete of a faded grey future.
Thoughts as seeds to give birth to an ethical future.
Dying and dying again
My head bumping into the walls of impossibilities
My heart crashing into the relationshits
My energy recycling to Create, midwife, connect
As crazy as it may seem
My currency is Evolution.
Nobody is up to take on such a challenge alone
Only a team of people dedicated to their success can do it.
Welcome to the Possibility Team!
