Dear all,

The future looks exciting! Our Findhorn Foundation SCIO team had a beautiful three-day retreat in the beginning of January in which we shared our visions, hopes and dreams for 2025. We planned the year and set priorities, looking into what we would like to accomplish by the end of this year. Some of it can already be shared here, some will be a surprise for later …

Our Island experiences for 2025

We are excited that, starting in spring, we will offer our core programme, Experience Week, for the first time on the Isle of Erraid, as well as holding our Spirit of Iona retreats at our beautiful retreat house Traigh Bhan once more after our winter break. Iona is only a short walk and ferry ride away from Erraid. You can actually see Erraid’s observatory from Traigh Bhan on a clear day. Spending a couple of weeks on the beautiful west coast of Scotland to experience both islands is something I often do. It is wonderful to take in their differences and similarities. For me, personally, Erraid is like a wild, raw earth mother, whereas on Iona I feel a more gentle energy, as if angels are hovering over the shiny isle, blessing each step of our sacred pilgrimage. Both islands offer wonderful sanctuaries, a cosy home, community experiences, outstanding land- and seascapes to explore and so much more … allowing for new, unknown, and maybe even surprising feelings to arise when connecting to the spiritual heritage and beauty of these ancient places.

So our small team’s main focus for this year is to welcome guests to have exceptional experiences on these western isles of Scotland.

My personal island experience

The other day out on a walk I was thinking about the question, “Why am I actually doing what I am doing in my life?” What came to me was that I believe that living on the Isle of Erraid for five years truly transformed my life. I came to the island when my partner had just died, my work life at university didn’t fulfill me, and I felt sad, empty, and often even depressed. After experiencing so closely that all you ever take with you when you die are your experiences– and that you never know when your time will be up – I decided to live life to the fullest and to stop waiting for a tomorrow that might never come. I found this quote in one of my partner’s books shortly after his death, it felt as though he was giving me a nudge from behind the veil, and it became the heartbeat of my life:

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

So I summoned all my faith and courage, and moved to Erraid.

Living on Erraid transformed my life on so many levels. Even though not everyone will have the same experiences out on the islands, I believe that if what I am doing in my life right now through my work at the Findhorn Foundation SCIO can support just one person to change their life in a positive way – then what I am doing is worth doing. Over the years I have seen the change in our participants on a weekly basis, in each ‘end of the week sharing’ people spoke about the impact their time on the islands had on their life. There are many expressions from these sharings which I will never forget, one that keeps coming back to me is: “Just knowing that this place exists makes my day to day life at home so much better.”

And you know, yes, some people also don’t particularly enjoy their experience. I have seen guests leave the island after two days as there is no pub nearby but then the islands don’t give you what you want, they give you what you need …

One more memory

I remember the one time my mother visited me on Erraid. On arriving she was in deep shock! Her precious daughter Frau Doctor Schmitz was out there on an island with composting toilets, a shower with a basin made from concrete in an ice cold bathroom (fear not, this has changed now!) and many other wild and unexpected things. Then in the Sunday morning meditation she picked the angel quality of ‘Healing’ to be with her for the week and I saw the first softening, the first heart opening happen for my mum, the island starting to weave her magic … Later in the week I took her to my favourite meditation spot and just sat with her in silence. It felt like one long and deep inbreath. Time stood still and I believe that the ancient spirit of the island was singing her sweet song to my mum. Many years later she kept telling me whenever we talked on the phone: “Remember when I was sitting there in your favourite spot on Erraid? Whenever I have a bad day, I just remember this moment and immediately I feel better.”

You never know when this moment will come for you or where it will happen and of course it can come to everyone of us anywhere at any time — no travel needed — as its possibility lives within us every minute, each day. Finding the portal and crossing the threshold is the key. Sharing the island experience with others and seeing how the spirits of land and sea can support these moments of oneness with the Divine is a magical thing of awe and beauty to behold …

Back to the plans of our team

So yes, offering exceptional experiences on Erraid and Iona is our main focus of the year. To enhance and improve our island experiences Terry is out on Erraid as I type, Andrew will go there next week to support the community for several months and I will go to Iona for two weeks to look after our retreat house Traigh Bhan. Hopefully, we will all go out to the islands as a team at the end of March for a couple of weeks. Getting the houses and gardens ready for our participants and filling the places with loving energy is what we are hoping to achieve in early spring.

Connecting as a global community

Something else we are very excited about is that Sara is looking into how we can create an online space where we can all meet and connect more – no matter where we are in the world and what time zone we are in. We would love to be able to be in touch and share and meditate with you more often and hopefully also offer more online experiences in the future. It would be lovely to have our own virtual space for our global community where anyone can tap into at any time. This will be Sara’s main project for the coming months and I am excited to see which new possibilities for connection will arise. I already find it wonderful that we are meeting every weekday morning with around 160 people for our morning meditations. This offer is expanding in February as we start live streaming the meditations to our social media platforms on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram so that you can enjoy the replay if you can’t be with us in real time on Zoom. What a joy! Let’s have more of that and expand our Network of Light all around the globe!

Ash joined us

And of course another big piece of news is that we tuned in our wonderful Ash to be part of our SCIO team to look after our gardens and grounds here at Findhorn, on Erraid, and Iona. Of course she will also keep supporting us in looking after our inner garden in her wonderful heartfelt meditations, and with all her other wonderful gifts she shares so freely with us and the world. She says:

“I am delighted to be caring for our beautiful gardens and grounds here at the Findhorn Foundation SCIO, talking and listening to the many beings (seen and unseen!) that live and visit here. Our Original Garden has always been a haven for humans and a wonderful space to listen within, and now we are inviting in even more connection and creation with nature too. I am looking forward to seeing everything grow and bloom on every level over the coming year!”

Gifts to the world

Oh, and one more thing, I just thought about whilst making breakfast. My high dream for the Findhorn Foundation has always been for our guests to join our experiences without having to pay. My wish was that everyone could just give whatever felt right for them at the end of an experience. It seems that we are at least one step closer to fulfilling this dream. We have established our Pay It Forward Fund, which means that you can financially support others to take part in our experiences. Through our Fund you are paying your abundance forward, so that the ones who receive your gift will share their insights and learnings in their own ways with the world, creating a new way of being on this planet – opening one heart at a time. Having established our Pay it Forward Fund means that even though we are not there yet, we are getting closer to offering our experiences on a gift economy basis. This means that hopefully in the future everyone will be invited to give what they can and what feels comfortable for them in exchange for the experiences we offer. Sharing love, light, and wellbeing with the world!

Some inspiration

Just as I finished this letter, I joined this morning's online meditation, during which Harriet read out the inspiration for today. What synchronicity that the first words I heard were:

“Do something with your life. There are many avenues to explore, so why not explore them? Never be afraid to step out into the unknown, into the new. Do it fearlessly, always expecting the very best as you do so. Life is very thrilling and exciting, but you must be willing to branch out into the new in absolute faith and trust.”

— Guidance received by Eileen Caddy

Sending you lots of Love and hopefully I’ll see you when you are branching out to the western isles of Scotland this year!

Sending frosty blessings from a sunny winter morning in Scotland,

Britta xx

P.S. One more thing: Of course we also reviewed our year 2024 and look at this beautiful wordcloud Sara made out of the feedback from our Spirit of Iona participants. Most of the retreats were held by Andrew, that’s why his name is in there too. It looks as though our participants had a beautiful and meaningful time.

Our dreams for 2025