My friend Peter Moore, who lives in the community of Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon, USA, wrote this article after attending the 2011 Holistic Centers Gathering

Start sending radiances to the group known as the Arizona group. As the love flows, it will unite you with this group. Get a globe and start marking the centers on it. You are part of a tremendous network and each member is closely linked…. This is a network of light; therefore each should be linked with the others…. Learn to feel the intertwining and intermingling of each center…. The strength comes through the linking up (and uniting) of the centers.

~ Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond

These words, penned more than a half century ago, presaged the creation of the Findhorn Community. Mrs. Caddy described this message as a direct transmission from spirit. Two years later, in 1962, Findhorn was founded on a sandy bit of an old Royal Air Force base, next to a toxic waste dump. Now, 50 years on, Findhorn is a verdant and thriving community of hundreds of people hosting thousands of pilgrims each year from around the world. As Christine Lines, my friend who lives there, put it, “Findhorn is a University of the Soul”.

Walking the Camino I often noticed heart shaped creations along the path, pilgrims having carefully placed pebbles in the universally recognised symbol, pointing the Way, both on the outer journey and the one within. I always felt my heart soar open in love and gratitude, my spirit smiling in recognition, the symbol an incentive to keep walking especially on weary days.

Living here in the community of the Findhorn Foundation, I’m often faced with the question can I keep my heart open, even in difficult circumstances? Life here, just as along the Camino or anywhere, is full of joys and challenges and it sometimes feels an intense way of living, sharing in such closeness with others, especially when conflict arises.

Today I live in the spiritual community of the Findhorn Foundation in the far north of Scotland and work closely with nature in the vegetable production garden of Cullerne. Growing organic produce for the co-workers living here and the guests visiting, the work itself in tending the plants feels just as nourishing as the food.

There’s a constant balance between the work that needs to be done, sharing the experience in a loving way with the guests who volunteer in the garden and embodying the spirit of Findhorn.

The community is based on three founding principle; turning within to listen to our inner guidance, work being an expression of love in action and co-creating with the wisdom of nature.

There’s a little book called, “Opening Doors Within,” by one of the three co-founders, Eileen Caddy, which contains 365 daily meditations from Findhorn. Inside I continually discover messages that deepen my insights from the Camino.

On the theme of Letting Go, by Eileen Caddy;

“Once you have taken a step forward in faith, never look backwards or start regretting what you have left behind. Simply expect the most wonderful future and see it come about. Leave the old behind, it is finished. Be grateful for the lessons you have learnt and for the experiences you have had, which have all helped you to grow and have given you a deeper understanding…Let go, release the past and move forward with your heart filled with love and gratitude.”

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In May 2012, the Findhorn Foundation will be hosting the International Holistic Centre’s Gathering, a unique expression of the ‘Network of Light’ and one of the special events offered during Findhorn’s 50th birthday year.

This year’s annual Gathering was held recently at Harbin Hot Springs, a retreat and workshop centre and residential community in California. It was a joy to attend and experience how the very mention of Findhorn inspires people, many of whom dream of making the pilgrimage here one day.