Italien folgt Irland - zwei starke Köpfe für das Global Ecovillage Network
Lucilla Borio's Leben wendet sich mit GEN; sie wächst in Declan's Schuhe hinein und wieder hinaus
I first met Declan at the conference "Ecovillaggi: Una soluzione per il futuro dell'umanità" in Alessano, Puglia, in 1996. He came with John Talbot from Findhorn to present GEN-Europe and the ecovillage movement. It was the first meeting of the Italian Ecovillage Network RIVE. On that occasion, we barely had the time to shake hands, I handed over a Torri Superiore flyer and said a few word like "I hope you can come visit us one day...". Then we met again in person in June 1998 here at Torri Superiore, when he came for the GEN-Europe General assembly, after some months of phone and email preparation. He came a few days early, as he was at the time the General Secretary and Manager of the network, and we were hosting the meeting in our ecovillage. We immediately got along very well - he started telling us about his travels and work in Dubai, an amazing place, and other countries, and I was fascinated by this energetic, enthusiastic, warm-tempered man who was travelling around the world to represent ecovillages and spread the word about the movement. I did not quite understand everything he was talking about, but was listening with keen interest and trying to offer him the best attention to make him feel welcome and cared for. He was already a kind of living myth in the movement and having him here, in a small, out-of-the way Italian village, really made our hearts beat fast!
What struck me? He was not behaving at all like the celebrity he was - and still is! - but was very open, kind, truly interested in what we were doing, and very friendly right from the very beginning. Massimo, my husband, and I both "fell in love" with him for being so fantastically human and spiritual at the same time. He is a firy person with a huge heart!
In 1999 I was nominated the next GEN-Europe Secretary, and became Declan's successor in the job. He was happy to let go of his position, ready to move on to something new and different, and I think he trusted me well enough to be relaxed about the future of the organisation. I stayed for one month in Lebensgarten (1999, the coldest February in my whole life!) and worked with him and his assistant Agnieszka Komoch every day to learn the job and prepare the move of the office in Italy. During that month, we spent time together at his beautiful house (where the office was), shared thoughts and feeling about life, the world, ourselves, in general got to know and appreciate each other deeper. It was a very intense and emotional time. Later on, I had several opportunities to meet him again at GEN meetings and other occasions, and always felt very close to him and his wonderful wife, Margrit. Our common commitment with the ecovillage movement, and our belief that we were doing something useful and important not only for ourselves and our friends, but for the future of humanity as a whole, kept us on the same wave length for all these years. Together we achieved quite a lot: he started GEN-Europe "from scratch" in 1995, and right from the beginning organised it as a truly democratic, participatory organisation. I kept going in the same direction, following his direct advice or his spiritual example, and helped the organisation to grow bigger and stronger in my 4 years term.
Things I learnt from Declan:
- Dancing is beautiful!
- Let your emotions out! Don't be afraid to apologize afterwards! Real friends won't be scared away!
- Never give up! If there is a will, there is a way.
- Art and joy are part of everyday life, open yourself to music and its soothing power
- Work hard, have fun hard, look around, think permaculture, this is the key to an enjoyable life!
Today we hardly have any direct connections at all, unfortunately, but Declan is still very much in my heart and I often think of him. I have stopped working for GEN-Europe as the General Secretary since 2003 (although I still keep a minor job as the "bank agent" and responsible of the legal seat of GEN), have moved on to developing our place here in Torri into an eco-tourism facility, and finishing the restoration of this small, beautiful village.
If it were not for Declan, I would never have had the GEN-Europe job, a wonderful period in my life, full of commitment, hard work, travels all over the planet, new friends and connections, new stimuli, a new dimension in my existence. He believed in me, told me so, and encouraged me to step forward and get the job in a difficult time (Declan, you certainly remember the troubled waters we entered when we moved the office to Torri ... and most of all, the way we were still able to laugh about it afterwards!).
This makes him important in my life: he trusted me and encouraged me to take his job, even though "walking in his shoes" in the GEN environment was not easy at the beginning, and it took me quite a bit time to make room for my own style and develop new programmes and ideas.
Meeting Declan, and working with him, was certainly a turning point in my life.
Birthday presents for Declan:
Dear Declan, I wish you a wonderful party with as many friends as possible;
a long, happy and peaceful life close to your dear ones;
beautiful, colourful and inspiring dreams every night, from today onwards;
a holiday for you and Margrit in Torri Superiore
I really hope we will meet again soon.
With much, much love from
your friend Lucilla, from Massimo and all the others at Torri Superiore.
VIA TORRI SUPERIORE 5, 18039 VENTIMIGLIA
info@torri-superiore.org
www.torri-superiore.org
