Valentina Maccario, the newest WiN Team Member, describes her thoughts and experiences surrounding her first facilitated 'Dreaming Day' with the WiN team.

The morning of our team's Dreaming Day coincides with the autumnal signs of seasonal changes; the turning of the leaves, drops in temperature and shortening of the days. As these shifts bring a later Fajr, it's been a little easier to rise before the sun.

In our home, nestled within an urban city landscape, the moon peeks out above flats, the sun hides behind the growing high-rise buildings and the stars are often found intertwined amongst the metal lattice of the train station. At dawn, the seagulls sing a duet with the conductor's call; the running footsteps of the latecomers stepping in as the musical time-keeper.

On my walk over to meet the team, my thoughts wandered to the way our non-human communities remain so rooted in nature's cycles, no matter how the landscape changes, still so deeply aligned to their own Fitrah, or most innate nature. Without complaint, the birds welcome these new additions into their morning melody, the stars frame themselves in an array of new shapes, and the moon keeps her cycle constant, a sign to reflect and return.

Nature so often mirrors the parallels in our lives, and as our group gathered for my first WiN Dreaming Day, I was intrigued to how this process would ground and align us amidst our constantly shifting landscapes; from changes within our group, to the growing conversations, activism and interactions happening wider in our societies. The exercises planned so thoughtfully by Muzammal took us deeper into this and in a true WiN style, attempted to clear the space of superficialities and false motives, looking deeper into how we stay aligned with our true intentions and processes, both inwardly and outwardly.

Activities for Dreaming

The day took us through a range of exercises; beginning with us looking internally to questions such as 'What's important? What fires me up? What's missing?' before delving into more specific outcomes like 'Where would we like to be in two years time?' Space was created for us to look inwards and connect to what drives and ignites us personally, the unravelling of our personal narrative naturally weaving us into a group mind, more able to connect on the bigger questions of where we are heading, where do we want to be and who we are, as a team and movement.

Learnings and Reflections

I continue to learn an abundance from the WiN team and amongst those lessons are accountability and true self-reflection. The power of a communal space is often that of a mirror; each person holding a way for us to see and challenge ourselves, creating for us the chance to reflect, change and realign, both as individuals and as communities. It feels so easy to get lost at times, to join the current that can push us forwards without wondering if it's the direction we even wanted to go. The Dreaming Day holds a huge power in this for groups; a chance to pause, reflect and reaffirm our direction.

Groups can so easily be swept into unconscious directions; failing to confront the realities of tensions, contradictions and power dynamics, and a Dreaming Day is a powerful tool against this, creating conscious moments of alignment and accountability. As we try to be a part of a space that attempts to return and reimagine different ways of community organising, we can often find ourselves in the same patterns we are trying to leave. The Dreaming day holds us accountable to our intention and purpose as a group, not only looking if our outward actions are aligned with this, but if the way we interact, process, make decisions and come together as communities are too.

Returning, Grounding and Alignment

Just as Dhikr returns us to our Divine Creator and reminds us to hold our thoughts, words and actions accountable in His blessed path of mercy, love and justice; a group can hold its own form of constant remembrance for us; rooting us back to why we are here, what our intentions are, and how we can honour and stay true to this.

The world continues to change, people move on and landscapes inevitably transform, and our challenge as communities remains to encompass and accept these changes whilst remaining true to our intentions and path. No day or space can be all encompassing and are all but a step on our longer journey, but perhaps, like the birds now contently singing in duet with the station tannoy, it need not be the greatest song of all time, but instead it just needs to keep a beautiful melody going.

WiN offers bespoke transformative training opportunities for groups and organisations, you can learn more and get in touch with us about organising trainings for your own team through the following link: Inclusive Leadership & Facilitation — Wisdom In Nature: Islamic Ecology ~ Permaculture ~ Inclusive Leadership