A Fool Decides to Start a Course.

One morning I woke up and had an idea.

This is always a slightly dangerous moment.

I thought, what if I started a course?

Not a course in becoming successful. There are already enough people teaching that.

Not a course in becoming a better person. I have been trying to become one for years, with rather mixed results.

And certainly not a course in finding yourself. Good heavens. Imagine finding yourself after all that effort and discovering it is the same old you!

No.I thought we might try something different.

** How about learning to be a living and loving Fool?**

 

You see, I have been watching nature.

Not professionally, of course. Mostly from windows, gardens, railway journeys and occasionally while avoiding something important.

And I have noticed a peculiar thing.

Everything seems to know how to live.

Trees grow. Rivers flow. Birds sing. Clouds come and go. Flowers bloom, fall apart, and return when the season is right.

Nobody seems terribly concerned about becoming the best version of themselves.

Except us.

We humans have made a rather complicated business of being alive.We have opinions about everything.

Especially ourselves.

We have an idea of who we are, another idea of who we ought to be, and a third idea of what other people think we are.

Then we spend most of our lives trying to arrange a meeting between these three characters.

Naturally, there are disagreements.

Sometimes there is a full-scale war.

 

And all this while, outside the window, a little sparrow is having a bath in a puddle.

I find this deeply suspicious.Perhaps the sparrow knows something.

So I have decided to investigate.

Not the sparrow. Ourselves.

The person we call **“I.”**Who is this I who wakes up every morning carrying yesterday's worries, tomorrow's fears, old insults, unfinished arguments, ambitions, disappointments and a shopping list?Who made this I?Who keeps it going?

And most importantly, must we continue being exactly the same I tomorrow?

I rather hope not.Because I have another idea.

**What if we designed our I in partnership with nature?**

Not for the next twenty years.

Not even for the next twenty days.

Just for today.

 

An I that can bend like a bamboo, flow like a river, rest like a stone, and occasionally behave like a thoroughly delighted puppy.

An I that knows when to do something and when to leave things alone.

An I that can love without possessing, care without controlling, and disagree without declaring war.

An I that understands that being part of nature is rather different from being the managing director of it.Imagine that!

We could wake up every morning and ask:*Now then, what sort of I shall I bring into the world today?*

And if we make a mess of it, well, tomorrow is another day.

Although I would recommend apologising today if we have stepped on somebody's toes.

So I have gathered a few old friends to help us.

Lao Tzu, who seems to have understood the art of doing without unnecessary doing.

Zen, which has a delightful habit of pulling the carpet from under our most cherished certainties.

Ecology, which reminds us that nothing lives alone, however independent it may imagine itself to be.

And Theatre, where we can try on different ways of being without having to marry any of them.

Together, we shall call this **The Fool Method.**

There will be stories, conversations, games, experiments, discoveries, and quite possibly some magnificent mistakes.

There will be no ideal personality waiting for us at the finish line.

No certificate declaring that we have finally become perfect human beings.

And absolutely no examination to establish who is the greatest Fool.

I should hate to lose.

What I would love is for us to discover how to live fully, one day at a time.

To become a little more curious, a little less certain, a little more loving, and considerably more alive.

To discover how to dance with nature rather than forever trying to teach her the steps.

So, would you like to join me?

Bring your worries, your wonderful ideas, your impossible relatives, your peculiar habits, your unfinished stories, and that version of yourself you would rather keep hidden.

Bring the whole lot.We shall see what we can do with it.

Or what happens when we stop doing quite so much with it.

**Welcome to The Fool Method.***Come as you are.

**Being human is quite sufficient.**

And do bring a sense of humour.

We are going to need it.

​

Oh, and one more thing.

We shall be spending ten days together in the middle of nature.

Together, but also wonderfully alone whenever we please.

You may join every conversation or disappear with a book under a tree. You may make a new friend, have a magnificent argument, discover an unexpected adventure, or simply enjoy the extraordinary luxury of having absolutely nothing important to do.

You might return home with a new idea, a new story, a new best friend, or ten nights of glorious sleep.

And if all else fails, you might accidentally get struck by enlightenment.

Although I wouldn't count on it.

Enlightenment has a rather unreliable attendance record.

Who knows?

Come anyway.

The trees are not expecting anything from you.

Neither am I.