Blivande Retreat 2021
Well, let me plant the seed for this in your heads: Let’s have a spring retreat for the people of Blivande next year in April/May.
Who is the people of Blivande?
This is a very good question, to which I do not fully have the answer. I know of myself, that I would claim to fall under the category “people of Blivande”. You might be just as sure to claim your title. Generally, it is all of us who build and fix, plan and think, connect and care for Blivande and its fluctuating population. A rough estimate is 40 people.
Why the retreat?
This is my list of things, I would like to do with “the people of Blivande”, in a retreat by the forest for 3-4 days.
Vision Sharing and Holding
Blivande is slowly becoming more and more, with the different opportunities and collaborations coming up, as we establish ourselves in the cultural landscape of Stockholm. It would be nice to have common time for a motivational update of our dear vision thinkers @hampus and @hugi, and others who’s gift for vision setting I might be overlooking right now. Take us on a trip to potential future multiverses.
Microsolidarity
Blivande has been inspired and simultaneously has inspired the concept of Microsolidary. It is a great concept, that I think in many ways we have already made our own. Sometimes it nice to put words to existing emerging phenomena.
Microsolidarity is a set of practices for mutual support between peers. These methods bring us out of individualism and into a more relational way of being. Most of this support happens in a Crew : a small group up to about 8 people growing trust in each other through emotional & economic reciprocity. Crews are always designed for intimacy, and may also produce an output (e.g. a software product or an activist campaign).
The Congregation is a space for Crews to co-develop in the company of other Crews. Congregations have less than a few hundred people, so they can be primarily governed through trust and dialogue.
Internal Communication and Authentic Relating
We see each other a lot, mostly busy working on different projects, sometimes on the same. Ideas are exchanged through word of mouth or the forum. Creating a container of dedicated time and space to explore our internal communication, seems tempting to me. I am not talking about the channels, we are constantly optimizing those. I am referring more to how we talk and interact with each other. How we set contexts and make implicit standards of behavior explicit. Authentic Relating has been part of my life for while now and I want to make it part of Blivande. We are constantly in each others professional and private spaces, conflict is unavoidable (and a source of growth and intimacy when transcended). We can help each other to be honest, aware of our needs and boundaries and compassionate to when we mess up something. This is my as you might anticipate, my biggest personal why for the retreat (next to FUN).
Creative Opportunity and Open Stage
I can see the danger of exponential project creation, if you put 40 of us in a cabin by the woods. It would be sane, to have someone checking that we do not forget to enjoy ourselves and relax. Also let’s have an open stage, I see it as a place where I get to know and see those of you that I do not know very well both in your essence and in your project and doing around Blivande. I have this dream of giving everyone 5-3 minutes attention, which they can spend to their individual liking. Attention is such a gift.
FUN
The essential ingredient.
For me it is long conversations, dancing, maybe some LARPing, Walks in the forest and good, heathy food with a lot of carbs. What is it for you?
What do you think?
This is co-created of course. I am motivated to get the ball rolling but would love to have some play partners to throw it around.
Fell free tagg people of Blivande
