Third Council Meeting of Council of European Grandmothers – Norway/Trondheim

Thursday, 22nd of June 17

After a welcoming coffee we walked to the river with glistening sunshine. In the opening ritual we collected grain from every country in a backing bowl. From there we walked to the city hall where teenagers and their two teachers waited for us. After a very cordial welcome by the mayor we learned about the school projects that the young people had worked on – the topic was: Relationship between youngsters and their grandparents. Then we walked hand in hand in a long row to our beautiful meeting room, where we had the chance to chat with the teenagers while sharing a meal. With our song “There is no time but now…”, we said goodbye to the very open-minded teenagers.

 

 

 

Friday, 23rd of June 17

Under Helga’s lead first of all the new Grandmothers could present themselves. Then the former members of the circle told about their projects. After that we had an exchange about relationship in the widest sense. Swami Nitya summarized the results and added some clarifying thoughts. We enjoyed a well-deserved lunch break in the sun. We opened the next session with a heart meditation with Swami Nitya and worked in three groups to find our personal summarizing sentence, which we want to share in the open meeting. In the folk-museum we met our old roots, with an old stone mill we could grind our grain to flour. With a wreath of flowers on our heads we experienced the celebration of midsummer with a wedding, dance, music and bonfire. As pilgrims we drove or walked back to the city.

Saturday, 24th of June 17

Out on the square in front of our meeting room, the senior choir gave us four of their songs as a gift. At the beginning og the public meeting every one of us presented herself in her mother tongue and shared their sentence with the public. After that Sabina (Italy), Sofia (Greece), Helga (Germany) and Vibeke (Norway) presented the projects they had started after the last meeting in 2016. During the exchange with the public, Sabina presented the next meeting in Florence in 2018 by interpreting a performance with dance and words. A fine vegetarian lunch closed the morning session. In the early evening we met up in the wood. The rain directed us into Vibeke’s house. In a meditation each of us connected with a creature from nature. Through us, these creatures told their stories and about their relationships to the humans. The family cooks Ellen, Martina and Vibeke had prepared wonderful food, that we could enjoy in the house and outside on the terrace in the sunshine.

 

 

Sunday, 25th of June 17

Also today we opened the session with a body awareness meditation. Martina took over the lead for the following points:

• The topic for the next meeting from 06th to 09th of April 2018 in Firenze. Sabina proposes the topic “wisdom”.
• For the meeting the year after we agreed on January/February 2019 in Lithuania.
• Organization of the council: many questions came up concerning the group size in future, how to handle guests, the procedure for welcoming new members, inner and outer circle. Personal experiences from this past weekend were shared. Many questions are still open and need to be discussed before the next meeting in Florence.

The last part of our program brought us out into the garden. Vibeke brought our “European Bread”. Breaking and sharing this bread was the closing ritual of the “Trondheim Council”.

Thanks from the heart to Vibeke and the city of Trondheim for their hospitality.