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At Schumacher

A delightful week at Schumacher College exploring complexity theory and its applicability to the design, resilience and sustainability of organizations. A discovery that many of your best intuitions have a supportive intellectual framework and a language to give them expression and a content that moves them forward in practice.

More than the content of the course is the context: the blend of intellectual and practical work is a joy. Yesterday cooking for the group was a delightful experience of creativity in service.

More than this are the walks in the gardens at Dartington especially in the early evening. They are quiet, virtually deserted, with a transfixing stillness.

I stood today at the fountain of the two entwined swans looking out across the formal lawns, the twelve Apostle yew trees to one boundary, out across the Devon countryside. The air was saturated in birdsong to the foreground and backgrounded by the distance toll of church bells being practiced on a Wednesday evening, England is now and always (to paraphrase T. S. Eliot).

It was a moment saturated with beauty.

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