I know it is possible to create islands of sanity in the midst of wildly disruptive seas.
Margaret Wheatley
Three Streams offers a programme of workshops and retreats, to facilitate individual and collective resilience, wellbeing and creative freedom at a time of global crisis.
Our work is as much about the wellbeing of the human as it is about the wellbeing of the natural world: Three Streams also plants trees, stewards the land, conserves and protects the environment. We understand that the wellbeing and resilience of one is inextricably interconnected with the other.
Our long-term aim is to create a low-impact centre in rural Scotland, run on an economy of wellbeing basis – putting planet & people before economic growth. The centre will be ‘an island of sanity’, open to anyone seeking refuge, revival or inspiration to build a future in which resilience and compassion go hand in hand.
We currently run workshops in central and south-west Scotland, as well as online. We’re in the process of expanding our reach to develop satellite programmes across the UK. Our work focuses on the three ‘streams’ of Creativity, Contemplation & Action.
Creativity
Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.
Brenda Ueland
Contemplation
Contemplation is a kind of prayer that is more affective and intuitive than rational; closer to silence, to the heart and to identification, than to speculation; closer to feeling than to reason. To contemplate is to make yourself present at the scene, to participate, see, hear, touch, taste…
Anthony de Mello
Action
The real work of planet-saving will be small, humble, and humbling, and (insofar as it involves love) pleasing and rewarding. Its jobs will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous.
Wendell Berry
Gratitude
Much of the thinking and motivation behind Three Streams has been inspired by 20th century Bulgarian mystic, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, and contemporary Franciscan, Richard Rohr, at the Center for Action & Contemplation in New Mexico. We’d like to express our gladness and gratitude for the wisdom of their work. We welcome people from all religious backgrounds and none.
Three Streams is also indebted to The Good Grief Network for their inspirational support of our Resilient Futures workshop, and for their generosity in sharing resources. They embody a way forward for a truly sustainable and alternative economic model. Thank you, LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis Reau.
Thanks also to photographers Melina Lorenz, George Hiles, Daniel Mirlea, Richard Lee, Liam Shaw, Max Berger, Vivek Doshi, Valerie Blanche, Heshani Sothiraj Eddleston and Brian Walker, for their contribution to our website.
