Around Midsummer my jaw fell … I spotted an ad for an industrial space for rent and thought “did I design this myself”? The space was so made for what I was envisioning that I didn’t know where to put my hands …

Fire was up my behind … the minimum lease was 12 months and with 370 m² it meant a lot of money even when the rent per square meter was decent. Eemmhow??

Today the ad is still there, and today we received a small-scale money collection number from the police. “We” are Suotuisat paikat ry, a registered non-profit established to further community, peer learning, self-esteem and wellbeing of body and mind by erecting for them as favourable environments as possible.

The association was established by an architect, a service designer and myself, and we’re setting out to have a communal living room with dedicated space for peer learning – and the one interested in having their own communal living room is cheerfully welcomed to follow along.

Please join this endeavour in a way you find meaningful … When the living room opens, it’s after a thousand individuals have chipped in …………

In 1983, an American consultant named Harrison Owen arranged a conference on leadership on which he worked for a year. The conference went well yet afterwards everyone, including himself, thought the best part of the conference were the coffee breaks.

Then Harrison thought, “If I have worked on something for a year, and the best part is the only thing I haven’t prepared – what would a conference look like, where the coffee breaks are the main thing? How would you practically go about organizing it?

What followed was a way of conferencing where the content creation was left to the participants. Using the prepared breakout spaces and announcement system, they were invited to follow their passion and take responsibility for what they care about.

Later, this way of conferencing has sometimes been referred to “unconferencing” or “open space”. By accident, I happened upon such a conference and it gave me something new. Since, I have worked for such environments to be set up wherever there are people with shared potential.

If you’re curious, please don’t be a stranger!

… grateful for a business owner who envisions their work environment as supportive for bodily wellbeing and peer-led initiatives – and who sees this post and hires me to further it together! Let’s be pioneers!

(the owner-thing is important, because culture only morphs when the one with the final word backs the new value set ……..)

In Place, the minds of the inhabitants were inseparable from the physical world. Whatever an inhabitant would think of – be it something frightening or wonderful – would instantly start to appear. The more minds thinking of the same thing, the faster it would appear. The more vividly they would envision it and the more they would feel it, the faster it would appear.

If you lived in Place, what would you think of?

… seems to be a project where every cell is supporting something/someone they themselves will be the body of. I’m wondering – are they aware of what or “whom” they are birthing? To what extent does it feel completely new and to what extent does it feel familiar?

In 2005 in Israel a seed sprouted and grew into a palm tree – after 2000 years.

Yes, you read that right. The seed was formed over 2000 years ago and then remained a seed. Seeds seem to be somehow “sleeping”. Then one moment, unfolding was possible. Suddenly after all this time, the surrounding conditions allowed for it to awaken.

I like to think as humans, maybe we are similar? That only when conditions allow for them, some aspects sleeping inside of us unfold. The contidions need not be optimal. But they need to be present.

Methuselah, judean date palm
Palm from old seed. Photo: Benjitheijneb, wikimedia

Story of the tree: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tree-grown-2000-year-old-seed-has-reproduced-180954746/

A room is as safe as the readiness to defend it. In a garden, if I sow a plant and put up a sign saying it must not be eaten – is that enough? If a rabbit starts to gnaw on it and I say “I condemn strongly” – is that enough? How set am I on the idea of the plant growing in peace? Do I have smart tools like a small protective fence or a milieu where the rabbit can still its hunger with something else?