The Edenhope Nature Preserve

A couple of months ago, on a clear sunny day, there was a very loud crack in the sky [like lightning had struck close by]. Other people, including Glen, heard it too. My thoughts went to Krakatoa - but just because of its association with the loudest explosion ever to be heard on earth, as far away as thousands of miles.

Numba 20 Decembre, we called a meeting of all Landowners, to brief them on our progress and hand out copies of the Negotiating Certificate to them. Three more signed on, bringing to fourteen now those who have consecrated their land to the Edenhope Project.

We’ve given the three still hanging back until beginning of the new year to sign on; as it will be prudent to go only once more to the Minister of Lands for an amended Certificate. Somehow it will just complete itself as does rebirth and regeneration.

In January, surveys we will contract surveys [of each land]. These will be the basis of final negotiations over premiums and rents due the various landowners. But the map is filling in nicely. It’s really been great progress for only thirteen months….

It is quite probable that there are at least ten waterfalls scattered through the land, and umpteen springs feeding the land and its rivers. Drinking from a small ruiseau that has sprung from the earth is one delicious experience. One feels truly blessed.

We decided to wait until after the new year before we return to Five Rivers. It will be Pascal’s last time there with his family - they’re all spending the holidays with him [and Eva]. He made the decision to withdraw from the heart of the Edenhope Project and from the land he cherishes - and so we are again the beneficiaries.

The land where his house is built is surrounded on three sides by river, making it a splendid location for the large community Nakamal we are going to build there. It will probably be one of the constructions we begin first.  The ‘village’ will then spread along the five rivers that converge upon us there. We have marked as many as twenty some sites so far.

So an insistent yearning is growing in us, drawing us ever deeper …into the deep bush. This year will surely see us renouncing the ‘civilized’ place called Luganville town. We will no doubt keep the office for a while for the convenience of those who will be coming, until such time….  

But the real beginning of transforming our lives will begin, and ‘going back’ will soon have no relevance. It seems that this inevitable decision that has been building in us for thousands of years. And from which place, one day soon, we will never, ever return to the ways of the lunatic world we wish only to forgive …and forget.

Most early mornings Ruth and I drive ten minutes to, of all places, the Santo Golf Club. I run it and Ruth walks it [the hills rise 29 meters above se level]. and then we both stand in the surf where springs of fresh ur-water seep up into the salt sea. Meditating so the Great Spirit has much to say to us in this way….

We join you in the rites of passage where seasons come and go, knowing for a certainty the most eventful time ever is fast coming nigh. Thus do we see how we must hurry. Yet even from that remarkable place, and through these generous, and curiously ubiquitous, means do we also share with all of you loving wishes. May enlightenment that comes of good will - and the peace that it brings - follow you for the rest of your days.