Catherine Meakins
Working with Peter’s books and being at the Molino, slowly and gradually I began to sense a different way of living where Nature and humans flourish freely together.
It took me time to find that the balance of joy and happiness lay in being in the moment.
As I read and re-read the texts of the books I found seeds, resonances of the Fourth Phase way of living. All this helped me to recognize the sanity and transformative simplicity of this new way. Offering us a map and compass for a path forward and helping us to make the choices needed to let go of our chaotic and destructive Third Phase activities. By each of us simply embodying this new way we allow the planet to heal and as the Earth’s inhabitants we also feel our path lighten.
The Elephant Within Us
I loved the oneness with Nature John found as he saw the world through the eyes of an elephant.
“He loved his life: the rising and setting of the sun, the endless succession of sun-drenched days followed by starry nights, the infinity of the universe above the wide open space of the savannah. He was immensely happy now. He no longer wanted anything else…”
“We are all emigrants, John reflected. We all came out of Africa. This is our birthplace and we should care for it.”
Wherever You Are I Will Find You
A colourful tapestry spanning Europe and Africa showing the many varied facets of human nature, within which the enduring love of Anton and Gail is woven throughout.
Living and working in the dispensary, little by little Gail began to change…
“Time feels different in Africa. It flows slowly here, like water trickling out of a fountain…”
Amadou, the rebel leader, woke me up to the high price often paid by developing countries for aid and ‘development’.
“…mining by itself has never brought real development … it will only bring development if the revenue is shared and invested in projects that lay the base for long-term growth…”
“You have been willing to shut your eyes and collaborate with the most brutal dictators as long as you could get the oil and minerals out.”
“We need something that goes much further than economic growth driven by a desire for material enrichment. We need to devise a system based on African values… a new vision for a sustainable future.”
“When I look at Africa …I should despair. But I don’t. I believe in the future. I believe in a new world. We must collaborate. We must try out things that have never been practiced before. And we shall find a solution.”
“All countries on Earth are interconnected. We are all in the same boat now. Our future is also yours and it is extremely urgent to change the way we are doing things if we are to leave a world behind us that will still be worth living in”.
A Journey Through Time in Africa
It was while reading the text for A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME IN AFRICA, first slowly as we worked through the pages and then again for myself seeing the book as a whole, that I saw how many precious aspects of our humanity are being lost in our “self-centred materialistic world”.
Peter and Claire set off from Brussels one wintry morning in an old Land Rover ..
Although in the harshness and beauty of Africa Peter and Claire found material poverty and hardship everywhere they went they met with human goodness and kindness, people were always ready to help and share whatever they had
“As we sat there under the vastness of a sky ablaze with stars and the magnificent sound of the women’s voices wound its way around the palm trees and floated up towards us, I felt deeply moved. This was music of all ages, of people adapted to nature and living in concord with it without disturbing it – it was infinite beauty and harmony combined.”
“It was in the Sahara that I had perceived the first glimpse of our place in the cosmos…There was the realisation of the miracle of being alive, this incredible feeling of being a thinking, breathing part of the moving, infinite universe. And when you open yourself to the throbbing pulse of the cosmos your smallness, your finiteness no longer matters…
“The discovery of the solitude of the desert – the feeling of awe, for the first time ever, you abandon yourself to its endless space and absolute silence…”
“Nothing is as deeply touching as when it happens for the first time… we were well aware that fate had smiled upon us, that life had opened its treasure chest and let us have a look at what was hidden inside. And what we found in there was something so precious, so unique, that we would carry it with us deep down in our hearts for the rest of our lives.”
Living in the Fourth Phase way we know our path is always shared; our care, actions and love determine how we share our planet with all other life, humans, animals, birds, plants. Each shapes the other’s happiness and well being.
“Africa was offering me something that was hard to define, a quality of life I had only rarely glimpsed before…I felt truly alive, in harmony with all around; I no longer needed more than I already possessed. I had atained perfect peace of mind. This was total freedom indeed!”
“I had heard more laughter in its harsh, hard deserts than in our civilised cities; I had seen more smiles and happy faces in less than a year there than I had in all the years before in the West.“
Catherine Meakins
MA Renaissance Studies