Greetings from a sun-drenched Ytterjärna!
The smell of roses fill the air, the elderflowers have opened and the first wild strawberries are turning red. With the change of season, YIP15 has come to an end. The Campus has quieted now that all the Yippies have set off. In buses, trains, planes and canoes they’re making their way to friends and family or straight into the next adventure.
In this newsletter you will read about the Personal Initiative Presentation Week and the Outdoor Experience. Two Yippies share about their plans after YIP. Lastly, the team would like to thank all of you who were a part of this year or made it possible in any way.
With YIP15 ending we also say goodbye to Janne and Ami, our dear team members who came in a time of need and have given their all to YIP during the last 2,5 years. Thank you so much for all that you’ve brought, YIP would not have been the same without you.
Sunny greetings,
Tessa
In this newsletter you will find:
– Personal Initiative Presentation Week – by Tara Moghbel
– Outdoor Experience – by Iona Temple
– Life after YIP – by Elias Frank and Sunjoo Lee
– Thank you from the Organising Team
– Invitation to YIP16’s Opening Ceremony
Personal Initiative Presentation Week
Throughout this week we got a peek into the inner world of each of the Yippies. Each individual stood on the stage with courage and vulnerability and opened the curtains of their private windows so that we got a glimpse of what it means to be a Noam, a Billy, or a Sève. We heard stories of both struggles and joy. Deep dives into one’s own biography or finding a new and more authentic relationship to art. We heard from Yippies who had deepened a topic that had already been an interest, and from those who had explored something entirely new, like breathwork or filmmaking.
Some of the questions that were explored during the presentations were “What does home mean to me and others?” or “How can we connect across cultures with stories, over food that is lovingly prepared together?”, “How can I connect to my own will?”, or “What does it mean to be creative purely out of oneself and use art to bring my experience of the world to others?” These questions were explored through music, film, writing, printmaking, photography, embroidery and more.
The stage was a magical place where each Yippie could stand and be held with love by people who had seen their good days and bad, their struggles and triumphs, and more often than not, had had an influence on the person they had become.
As an audience member I was moved to tears countless times as I witnessed how each and every person had grown more and more into the essence of who they are during this year. It was incredibly inspiring to see all the beauty and healing that each individual had to offer to the world, each in their own unique way.
As we now leave Ytterjärna and scatter across the world like dandelion seeds blown by the wind, I am filled with hope and gratitude because through these presentations I have seen how much potential and power each of these seeds carry.
by Tara Moghbel
Outdoor Experience
– with Lien de Coster and the Organising Team –
Paddles dip in the clear blue water, canoes spread across the lake like birds floating by. We row, two in a boat, past the green forests of the Swedish countryside. The paddling is easy and we stop for lunch and enjoy sandwiches and each other’s company, jumping off rocks and basking in the sun.
The first evening we cooked dinner, played cards, and practiced walking barefoot, eyes closed, leading one another through the forest, learning to walk differently. We wondered how it feels for foxes to walk. How are they so silent? The next day we continued to paddle and found ourselves on an island all on our own for the night.
On this island we prepared for our solo experiences. The next morning we went and searched for our spot where we would spend twenty four hours alone, with just water, maybe a sleeping bag, no food. Then we set off, leaving the island to our spots on the mainland. Twenty four hours passed and the sun barely dipped below the horizon, the light keeping us company in our aloneness. We came back and shared our stories of sleeping or not sleeping, being warm or cold, of mosquitoes, of songs and questions and realizations.
On our last night we landed on another island. We basked like seals on the rocks and played cards and talked until late in the night when the colors of sunset faded into a muted light. The next day we paddled against the wind and after lunch, sat together and talked about what our intentions were for the coming year, what we would take with us from YIP.
by Iona Temple
Life After YIP
10 months of YIP have passed. YIP15 has left the campus in Ytterjärna for good and is now off into the world again. “Life after YIP begins”.
The question, in which direction this “life” should go in general, was one of the main reasons which led me to YIP. To figure this out, of course, is a very challenging task, and it can be argued that the answer to this question is rather ever-changing than concrete.
During my time at YIP, I was exposed to a multitude of experiences, people and places. This unique combination allowed me to delve deeper into myself, and to thereby uncover quite precisely what I need and want in life. In the end, it comes down to five things for me, that I feel are important now in my life. First, I want to have meaningful connections to my fellow human beings. Second, I want to be in touch with my body through movement and meditation. Third, I want to fully start playing the piano again. Fourth, I would like to find meaningful work in which I can express myself and give something back to the world. And last but not least, I want to be learning. In YIP these five points were often given, and I had the feeling that I made progress in all of them. Thus, naturally, it was hard for me to leave this place, since I, especially at the end, had the feeling of having nearly everything I needed.
Nevertheless, I also think that it was the right time to move on, and I’m excited to start my studies this fall. During my studies I will mostly try to focus on politics, philosophy and economics. My hope is that this combination of subjects will add and develop my understanding of the world to a point where I have the feeling to have understood enough in order to find where I would like to act within it. University will be more than enough to fulfill my hunger for learning, and I’m optimistic that I will be able to have the other four pillars in my life as well, thanks also to the learnings that I’ve been able to have in YIP.
by Elias Frank
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I will restart working as a learning facilitator, designing workshops on the theme of peace sensibility education. Before coming to YIP, I often hosted sessions reflecting on cultural diversity, conflicts, and social issues based on artistic pedagogy. At YIP, surrounded by creative friends and practicing a free flow of movement and rhythm in daily life, I felt I could create an atmosphere where creativity could run free. I also believe that courses such as The Art of Hosting, Slava Theater, and Outdoor Experience are all connected to the subject of peace education. Now, I can deeply connect artistic methods to harvest everyone’s stories and make them feel the movements of non-human beings or experience a sense of connection in the park, prompting them to think about the connections we are losing due to the climate crisis.
I prefer working in an organization over being a freelancer, so I need to search for a new job. But I’m not anxious about having a gap in employment. Because as I learned in YIP, I can design my own curriculum. YIP is a lifestyle program, and the past ten months have been a time where I continuously encountered curiosities in life. Seeing vivid examples of people creating dense time for themselves based on their interests. I’ve had many moments where I realized, ‘I want to embody this aspect of that person.’ As the starting point of my journey, I will focus on nurturing my language. I have a manuscript about my experiences at YIP in my native language, and I want to organize it for independent publishing. I also would like to learn enjoyable methods of improving my English skills to have more comfortable conversations with the friends I want to meet again.
The question of what I have learned at YIP feels difficult to answer. There are countless things I can say, connecting them to various keywords and mindsets. Nevertheless, the biggest learning was that my understanding of human development has broadened. During the closing ceremony, as everyone walked the spiral path, one by one and speeches were read, I cried because it was incredibly beautiful. I thought about the challenges each person had, how they developed their personalities, how they influenced the group and me, the moments we shared, and so on. Everyone appeared as beautiful, complex, and diverse individuals. Psychologist Alfred Adler said, ‘All problems start from human relationships.’ In my experience at YIP, by forming deep relationships with each individual in the community, I discovered the capacity to love everyone, and I believe this will bring generosity to my future human relationships.
by Sunjoo Lee
Thank you from the Organising Team
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves,
like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers,
which cannot be given to you now because you would not be able to live them.
The point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer.
By Rainer Maria Rilke
Ten months ago, on a long awaited rainy day, under the impressive ceiling of Kulturhuset, the Yippies of YIP15 were welcomed into their new home, here in Ytterjärna.
The motto of the Opening Ceremony was Rilke’s poem, encouraging all of us to question.
Often, a question arises out of meeting the unknown. We tend to have questions when we don’t know something. Looking into todays world, our present and future, we face many uncertainties, many unknowns, causing many questions that can be overwhelming, daunting, fearful.
Curiosity towards the world, towards others, towards ourselves, creates the soil from which questions can grow. Through questioning, we engage with ourselves and with the world. Questions set us in motion and inspire us to create.
The capacity to question belongs uniquely to the human being. The ability to sense into what questions are alive in us and how we relate to them, calls on our human will. Sharing our questions with others, calls on our courage. Living our questions is essential in discovering and forming our authentic self in an uncertain and unknown world.
Ten months later, on the other end of YIP15, we look back on a time in which all of us practiced living our questions. It hasn’t been easy. It has been confronting, annoying, challenging, but also moving, connecting and joyful. Questions have been lived and that’s the point, to live everything!
We are grateful for all the contributors, visitors, and friends who supported us in creating YIP15 with us.
We are grateful to Dajin, Pippin, Tessa and Ceci who so gracefully transitioned from Yippie to voluntary co-workers, generously giving their time to support the smooth running of the program. Your love and dedication was a gift!
We are grateful for the land, waters and skies of Ytterjärna. Thank you for continuing to be a welcoming home.
We are grateful for the Yippies of YIP15 and all the questions that came with them and depart with them, back into the world.
On a final note, we would like to take the opportunity to speak our personal gratitude to each and every person we met and worked with in the past years. After 2,5 years, the time has come for us to wave goodbye and handover the baton to two new and amazing YIP team members who will join Reinoud and Annie in the team for YIP16. It has been a great honour to work for YIP and we are thankful for those who carry the work forward. Until we meet again!
With love,
Ami & Janne
