As a non native, living in a foreign Country, I have always tried to be very respectful when putting any plans of action into place. I do like to think, that I am a citizen of the world and that we should all have the freedom to travel, as long as we are respectful to the land and all living beings that dwell there.
No matter what the intention may be, when you settle in a country that was not of your birth, you will always be viewed as a foreigner by some and that is something that just needs to be accepted. Perhaps over time these views may change, but if they do not then so be it.
I always try and connect with the local community, so that I feel more immersed, but when you are a mother and super busy, that is not always possible. Where I live now, there is a huge global community which has integrated quite well, but there is always room for improvement and that is something that I would like to focus more on.
Ever since I became involved in the Collective, that was born out of the Plandemic, there were not so many locally born people, that were interested in what we were doing, mostly because we were seen as the resistance and that in self comes with a lot of baggage. Most did not even understand what we wanted to do, which is to create independent infrastructure, a local currency and focus on building up relationships with local food producers, so that we could become more sustainable as a community.
Our idea of community, includes the whole area that we live in, but it is not always easy to get everyone on board, because certain labels, become attached when they see you as the resistance, or anti vac etc. In reality, we are pro community empowerment and pro Sovereignty, we really want to create a better world that everyone can live in, everyone that wants to be involved, that is.
At the end of the day, we can not force anyone to be involved and we never should try. We can be proactive in sharing information and knowledge, we can be active in creating the solutions and when the time comes, let it be known, that we will welcome anyone who wishes to get involved. It reminds me of that movie, where someone says, "If you build it, ,they will come" ( I can't for the life of me remember what that was, but I do have memories of watching it as a kid).
So for now, it is all about building bridges, connecting more with the people within our wider community and letting them see, that what we are doing, is all about creating positive change.
I have written on here, many times already about what we have been putting in place. How we are organizing ourselves using the Sociocracy Model, which is based around collaboration, self organization and distributed authority. Where self governance and equality are paramount to it's success.
We formed the following circles, Law and Sovereignty, Health And Ecology, Education, Counter Economy and Culture. All of which have anything from 5 to 8 members who make the decisions for each area, the members have certain roles and have all been elected.
We created the Collective, because we want to cultivate health, abundance, sovereignty and freedom for the people, all living beings and natural environment within the area we live in. With each circle having and aim and domain and focusing on what we can do now, what can be achieved later and what we wish for the future.
Each circle meets up at least every two weeks, with an open meeting, also being held every two weeks as well, to welcome people who want to learn more about what we are doing and learn how they can get involved. This meeting is really important, as it has helped to break down some barriers already.
During the lock down, we held pop up markets, so that those who depended on the income from selling their creations could continue to do so. That event, really helped to integrate us further, into the wider local community.
Everything takes time and when something new starts up, it is natural for people to be suspicious of what is going on. But over time, as we created more and more events, more and more people became much more curious, rather than suspicious.
But we still have a bit to go, we would love to empower people more, to help them see through what is really happening. But we can not force them!
One very positive action, we have recently created is a weekly language exchange, between the local people and the 'foreigners'. Which is really helping to bridge the gap that so many feel. At the end of the day, we are all the same and once we can lessen this divide and come together in unity, we have won.
