We're offering this work on a gift basis - here's some framing to help you understand where we're coming from, and how you can join us in this experiment.
What we create together in these circles is beyond monetary value, and we want it to be accessible to everyone regardless of financial means. And... of course we also want (need) to be financially viable: venues cost money; the planning, promotion and admin takes time; facilitators need financial support...
In offering this work on a gift basis, the idea is to establish an ethos of trust, and of sacred reciprocity. What we're offering is given freely -- and we're inviting a free gift in return. We don't want that to be about guilt or obligation but, hopefully, gratitude and flow.
“ The gift economy represents a shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance and isolation to community.” - Charles Eisenstein
A Living Inquiry
We're inviting you to join us in this inquiry, which we acknowledge may feel uncomfortable and perhaps challenging at times -- particularly as the systems we're currently operating within don't work (as yet) on a gift basis.
Here are some of the key questions as we feel our way into building an economy based on gift:
How can we make money work for us rather than (as seems to have become the norm) us working for money?
What if we were all freed up to fully give what is in our hearts to give?
What if we could escape the apparently unending, and sometimes mindless, constraint of having to 'earn a living'?
What if we didn't have to justify our very existence by making it count in the monetary economy?
What if our life is an entirely free and gratuitous gift, and our true purpose is to simply take part in the ceaseless flow of self-giving love at the heart of the universe?
By living our way into these questions, a small step at a time, perhaps we can enable the good that is in all of us to flow more freely.
“ The task before us is to align money with the true expression of our gifts.” - Charles Eisenstein
Many Ways of Giving
Money is just one way of giving, there are other kinds of gifts too, including the simple gift of your presence in the circle with us. There are also other practical ways you could support this work if you would like to; and it may be your gift will be to pass it forward in some way. All of this and more is welcome.
Making a Gift
When you come to a workhop, we will literally give you back the 'deposit' you have paid to hold your place, and invite you to feel into a financial gift that takes the following into account.
Your sense of gratitude with what you receive from the day.
What you can afford.
Your desire to support this work going forward.
How much you might pay elsewhere for something similar.
Pulling in Financial Resources
Part of the plan moving forward is to see if we can pull in resources from other directions. We'll be setting up a Patreon account (a sort of crowdfunder) for those who wish (and are able) to make a monthly financial gift to Norfolk Grief Tending. And there may be other funding pots we can access further down the line too.
Creating Abundance
Come and join us as we explore how we can create sacred space with our money as well as with our tears, and thereby create a community of abundance.
Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein
Tree of Life picture by Manuel Jaen