Kadri Allikmäe with Nara Petrovič
LOOKING OLD ENOUGH TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
BUT TOO YOUNG TO STOP PLAYING
Who are you and what do you do?
I am an ordinary guy with an extraordinary worldview and set of habits. Never over-attached to anything, never careless about anything, never excessively methodical, never stopping before reaching my own maximum. I am a puzzle ... I guess ... even to myself.
Others find it difficult to understand my life-style: barefoot walking, cleaning the teeth with a chewing stick, living in a caravan in a groove, not using chairs and tables, using forest toilet with no toilet paper, being a volunteer for the large part of my time, although I've never been employed in my life. And I live a joyous, abundant life with all I need ... and no, I never inherited anything, I don't have rich relatives, I am free of the burden of owning lots of stuff.
So it's good that you asked me what I do. I can never answer questions about what my job is, or employment, or proffession ... I do what I like doing and what I am good at. I am too lazy to work! On the other hand my creative energy knows no limits ...
Maybe that's why I write a lot. And when I kind of admit: "Hm, you could say I am a writer ...," people sigh, recognizing at least some kind of vocation. "Finally! He is one of us! There's a name for his work!" is what I hear in that sigh.
"Work?!" I think and continue: ".. but then I am also a cook, and a translator/interpreter, masseure, event organizer, windsurfer, lover, tantric, motivator, hitchhiker, runner, traveller, mystic, musician, merchant, programer, craftsman, architect, PR-specialist, healer ..." I simply do things. Am I qualified? The qualification is not only meassured by the quality of the final product, but even more by the quality of the inner process.
Jack of all trades, but master of none -- that's Nara. There is no arrea in my life where I am realy outstanding, but what other people say is, there is a special quality of experience in what I do. Except for this I am just an ordinary guy with a life that, well, fits well to my own personality. I mean, in any area you think of you can find a whole bunch of people who are far better than me, or more crazy, or daring, or smart. The only thing they lack to be me is the quality of me-ness, which is unique to me, of course.
So what I do can be expressed most succintly with the words of one of my greatest teachers, father Anthony de Mello: "I am singing my song, I am dancing my dance." That's about it.
At the moment the "singing and dancing" is occuring mostly in Slovenia. I travel quite a lot, so I sometimes "sing and dance" wherever in the world I happen to be.
In what kind of movements are you involved in?
I am mostly involved in the movement of myself around things, people and ideas. Sometimes I get to know people who seem to be moving in a similar or same direction, and when it is enjoyable I tend to move on with them for a while, when it's not I find the next flock.
I've been a member of Hare Krishna movement for six years. Then I started "The Association for Down-to-earth Spirituality" which was active for a few years with lectures, seminars, workshops etc. The next was Co-Creation group, created on the inspiring messages of Anastasia, the hero of Vladimir Megre's series of books: "The Ringing Cedars of Russia". With these books eco-village initiative became very strong and I joined it as well. In relation to Ringing Cedars movement I was elected in 2008 a Co-chairman of "Kin's Domains Association", KDA in short (www.kin-dom.org). I cooperate with "Eco-village Institute" lead by my friend Domen Zupan, a great guy. Thus I got to know people from GEN Europe and luckily I got Grundtvig EU funds for the eco-village seminars in Keuruu ecovillage in Finland in July 2009. There I met many inspiring Finnish and Estonian friends, and also fantastic people from all over Europe.
After I came back to Slovenia I spread the video of the Estonian "Let's do it!" country cleanup program, and the group soon formed to clean Slovenia in 2010 ... so I am also a part of that group.
As I am listing all this I start asking myself, where are the other 3 Naras? There's no way I am doing all this myself! Plus I never work, remember? I am a very lazy guy ... This is a strange paradox indeed.
How did you get involved in the Slovenian ecovillage movement?
Writing and translating brought me in touch with Anastasia and as an editor of the translation of these books I got to understand the importance of the soil (for the nourishment of body and soul) and the "primitive" primal life in nature. Everything that followed was a natural sequence of development. Something like this happens to everyone. I only allowed it to unfold perhaps a bit faster than it usually occurs. Actually, people usually fight against it ... especially when it's genuine.
I am sorry my reply is not as practical as you would maybe want it to be, but it's real and given from my standpoint and mindspace perspective. Ecovillage movement is also about allowing change, not about making it.
What exactly do you do, guys? What kind of events do you have?
We guys do a lot of enjoyable and benefitial things! Permaculture workshops, natural building workshops, other seminars, cooking workshops, wild-plant picking, picnics, organizing the cleanup of Slovenia etc. etc. I think the other guys work too much. They think I should work more, particularly work in a more focused manner. And in the hour of need I do it happily. But in the hour of no need I go from task to task and do them enjoyable regardless of what they are. And when I do it together with the other guys on all our various events, that becomes a feast for the soul!
What is the current situation of the movement and what are the problems?
Ecovillage movement has a few major problems. First, we live in Slow-enia, thus everything is bound to develop slowly. It's a joke of course, but containing a grain of truth, too. There are hundreds of people who would like to join an eco-village, but first the pioneers need to establish it. That is our first task that isn't materializing as quickly as we are hoping it would. But some indications are proving we're on the right track.
Out of many locations we were looking into, finaly a few turned out to be really good. So we're hoping to start up the first Slovenian village in the next year. My participation will be limited due to a few other projects I'll be engaged in throughout the year, but I'll help as much as I can.
What do you want to achieve? And what is the biggest challenge ahead?
Achievements are not something I like to define my activities with. What is the achievement of a river? Its "feat" of reaching the ocean? Or its plain flowing? I feel we're already doing great as we nurture and uphold our friendships, our common activities, learning and magic of togetherness.
Who are you as a person? How do you live?
We come from all kinds of background. Most of us are vegetarians (to put it in words understood by many), we live a fairly simple life. We are striving for rich life on permaculture designed plots of land within a strong community. There are young people in the group as well as elderly, there are children, couples, single men and women, well ... we're ordinary people with a very lively desire to live in an ecovillage.
The craziest thing I've ever done ...
.... and I still do is: being myself! ... barefoot in a five-star hotel ... naked cultivating my garden (sometimes even in January :-) ) ... falling from 6 meters directly on my head ... massaging 15 people in the course of one night ... having seven-day wakefulness fasts--sleeping for seven days without a break ... climbing a 2500 m high mountain barefoot ... sleeping on the naked forrest ground a few times ...
The most beautiful thing I've ever experienced is...
... the touch of a human being.
The biggest change I ever made in my life was...
... stopping to make changes and starting to allow them.
A thing that changed my life completely was ...
1. "Wake-up to life" series of lectures by Anthony de Mello.
2. a talk with a mystic in India who told me (in a few words): "Human being is a bag of information. When you take the information away, nothing remains. God is something you first need to experience and then learn about. Holy scriptures are not breath of God, but vomit of people."
3. My book "Human Being: Instructions for Use"
4. The touch of living beings.
What is the thing I'd like to say or recommend to all (eco)people:
Learn to shit as a genuine human being! That's the most essential basis of human existence! You don't believe me? Well, maybe you need to read my book ...
The things I'd like to say to the human kind in it's current situation as a civilization ...
Look in the mirror. Look into your eyes and say to yourself: "You are great! You are fantastic! Your smile makes the world shine! Your eyes bring the sun's reflection to the eyes of other people. You deserve everything that's given to you! You are free to enjoy every moment of your life. Worrying is completely useless. Allow the changes inside when they knock on your door. Trust! Flow with life. Don't hesitate to touch life whenever you have a chance."
Is there a need for change in our current way of living? and if, then what is the key for that? What should we change and what should we do differently?
First, people should take care of their own shit. Literaly! They should stop deffecating in water! Shit belongs to the soil! And your body needs to evacuate in a squatting position. That's the first and the most basic change for the humanity. This doesn't sound serious enough, right? What is required are serious talks on complex solutions among tie wearing world politicians, corporate CEO's, organization leaders and public figures.
But if you can't allow the change even of the most elemental, physiological polution that you're causing to yourself and your environment by sitting on a water toilet to defecate, how can you expect to allow change of all the complex stuff you're talking about so vehemently?! Fecology is the foundation of ecology.
As you get friendly with the dirtiest stuff, the symbol of repulsiveness--shit--everything else that's a part of the nature of your body will become friendly. God is in the shit. When the religion of shame and blame that surrounds our toilet habits and reflects the ritualistic life-style of our civilization dissapears, you'll become real humans again.
In my ideal world ...
In my ideal world everybody perceives clearly and responds accurately, to borrow the words of Anthony De Mello again. That is love: seeing clealy and responding accuarately. When you perceive everything clearly and respond to it acurately, there are no wars, no hatred, no injustice, and most of all no stupidity.
That's all we need.