A Walk Through the History of The Living Centre
You could say both Lorenna and I spent our adult lives imbued by the wholistic field. It was new, exciting and on the edge back in the ’70s. I, Lorenna, am exploring consciousness and earth connection, and Shantree is diving into his love for plants through herbalism and nutrition.
We loved supporting people in natural ways to heal their body-mind and deepen into the essential questions of ‘Who am I?’, ’Why am I here?’ and ‘What is my service to the world?’
Life was full and fulfilling. About 30 years ago, a deep and almost unbearable yearning to be of greater service to what was becoming a withering planet began to emerge. Yes, we know that healthy people make for a healthier planet. Yet, we also saw that many people, while celebrating a healthier, more vibrant lifestyle, were not connecting the dots between the health of the Earth and human action.
This is about the time Shantree and I met, and the Centre started to metamorphose from being mostly an herbal centre to an eco-spiritual centre. Courses were created that reflected a larger vision of what health means.
Programs that addressed practical needs such as food, nutrition, regenerative forest gardening methods, natural medicines, and ecological and systems thinking emerged for us. All of this is woven together with practical methods for healing trauma, childhood and societal indoctrinations, nature connection, and shifting consciousness from the destructive illusion of the ‘separate self’ to one of Interbeing, also called interconnection.
It’s not as though we weren’t doing this before. We realized that to fulfill this heart-yearning and our mutual commitment to serving our Earth Mother, the lens of how and what we offered had to shift from being primarily people-focused to caring for the Earth, People, and Future Generations.
Ultimately, a healthier Earth makes for healthier people and lives. We have realized that most people's souls are a great wasteland because of our disconnection with Nature. This disconnect happened so long ago that we don’t even remember why we try to fill our lives with ‘stuff’, busyness, success, and addictions to fill the hole in our hearts.
They say, ‘Love is the answer,’ and indeed it is. Our journey has taken us on a great love affair with so many aspects of Earth’s expression. For Shantree, it has been through Herbalism, Ayurvedic Living Nutrition, our Permaculture Certification courses, and Forest Gardening.
For myself, I find ways into the heart of Mother Earth through the Shamanu: Earth Wisdom, Teachings, WomanEarth programs and ManEarth: Fire & Water Sacred Balance and Permaculture, particularly the Inner/Social aspect.
Allowing our teachings to ignite our interconnected oneness with all of life, opening to nature as a wisdom teacher, supporting people in realizing their ‘sacred work’ as builders of a planetary community focused on peace and respect for the sacredness of all life, and drinking in the awesome wonders of creation is truly what our lives are all about.
Awe, wonder, connection and Love for Life is not ‘woo woo’. It is the very foundation of who and what we are. For some crazy reason, we have normalized war, hatred, selfishness and the like.
There is radical change afoot. Having been in the healing field for 55-years, we can see an acceleration in how quickly people wake up, ask important questions, and reclaim their lives. These are exciting and dangerous times. We sit on a knife-edge of possibility. What we choose in this generation will lay the foundations for decades, as it always has.
We are deeply thankful to be able to share what we love through our programs and now, opening our hearts and land to others who want to create sustainable ways of living and creating income doing what they believe in through our Ecosystem Participants program.
What a privilege to be alive in these times with the support and love of a living planet and each other. We look forward to continuing to share and celebrate the abundance of Life and community with you.
With love and gratitude,
Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera, co-director of The Living Centre & founder of Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings