Life’s way of having fun
The New Life program is a very full package of events, lessons, sharing and friendship that gives you an opportunity to feel what it really means to be a Damanhurian citizen. After just a few weeks in New Life, Tim Schoonhoven from Holland wrote this blog post.
Where to start, where to start… Ok. Today I woke up with a headache, my throat was hurting, and I felt a little weak. I got up anyway. My caravan has a narrow view, so I would like to go out.
Breakfast: milk, muesli and biscotti. Cookies for breakfast, that is new!
Afterward, I find a ride to Damanhur Damij or “un passagio” as they call it here. At Damjl, I do an interview for the QDQ (the Damanhurian newspaper) about the New Life experience. I tell why I am here, who I believe that I am and what I think I have to offer.
9:30 am. Advanced Italian class. I was not supposed to be here yet, but every chance to pick up Italian is welcome. It comes quite in handy. David, our 69-year-old New Lifer is delightfully present. He can ask questions and have answers that get on everyone’s nerves. I love his youthful spirit!
I have two questions to ask in class:
1. If we can translate a note that a guest left at our nucleo in English.
2. If we can translate a poem my girlfriend and I wrote (or actually my girlfriend alone) into Italian.
The note, consisting of 10 lines, takes us an hour and a half. Mainly because the Italian way of handling things is always done with a lot of talking, which is followed by three more hours of Italian, which takes a lot of concentration.
I read Dying to Learn by Oberto Airaudi, better known as Falco, who is the founder of Damanhur. I read all of it. I don’t know if I get it, how I feel, confusing I guess. I would like to open up more.
In the afternoon, I go to Damanhur Crea to buy some natural medicines. I get a lot of tips on what to use, herbs, propolis and other things.
I also drop by Aria, the welcome house where the New Lifers first live before they move to a nucleo community. I have a coffee with Matias, talking about a lot of topics. Drugs, coffee (or is that also a drug?), smoking, his story, my story and last but not least: spirituality.
6 pm. Pre-Meditation with Puma, about dreams and what they are all about. She is older than I thought, but then all people here are older than they look. Jack, part of the Dutch couple ‘Jack & Stella,’ has been here for three months, and he looks like an enlightened being. Nobody is able to get him crazy anymore. This particular lesson explains how we can deal with dreams and move toward states of lucid dreaming.
After the lesson, I get in the car with the other New Lifers and I get dropped of at Damjl, where I wonder if I can find a ride home to Dendera—the nucleo where I live these days. It is a bit far from the Capital Damjl.
Then suddenly the magic of Damanhur starts to work! I go to the receptionist, who speaks only Italian, and I am not able to explain what I am looking for or what I need. But…
she recognizes me from the interview in the newspaper, which is out already! In the interview I also mentioned that I live at Dendera and she understands that I need a ride. She also knows that a Damanhurian who was at Damjl for a meeting needs to go to Crea in five minutes. Perfect!
At Crea I find Gazza who is the “Head of the Nucleo” and we get in the car to Dendera. Nice, real nice. Here in Damanhur it is called ‘syncronicity.’ I call it “Life’s way of having fun,” but the name is actually not so important. It is much more important to notice it. As Einsteins says, “There are only two ways of living: 1. Live as if nothing is a miracle. 2. Live as if everything is a miracle.” You can of course decide for yourself which one is more fun.
Home at last! We eat a little fast because at 9:30 pm, we are having a meeting with the nucleo-family, my first one. First, we make a circle in which we take time to express our wishes and after I get to introduce myself. As I am telling my story, I feel a kind of awakening. I realize I am somewhere in the north of Italy, with some serious looking adults that I don’t even know yet, and I burst out laughing, “If only my friends could see me now!”
I feel a good vibration from the meeting, but there are also more emotional topics like, “Mamba, his wife Koala and their son are going to move to another nucleo community.” Tears all around, part of Damanhurian life.
Wow this was one day. No wonder that one month here feels like a year.
Con voi,
Tim
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