10 years looking for like-minded people, a reflection.

It has been 10 years since I wrote the vision and mission of Q.
An idea that took shape in 2010 as a physical place in Valdepuertas (Molinos, Teruel, Spain),
and as a center in 2011-2012 with the construction of basic infrastructures.

Q is today a reality, a life project that many people admire;
a way of living that inquires into Spirituality, Economics and Ethics;
that integrates physical, intellectual and spiritual work; collective and individual time,
active and contemplative life.
However during these 10 years, they have just appeared people who want make Q
their everyday reality. Very few people have come with the intention to join the project,
returning to their circumstances shortly after, but with more awareness, strength and clarity.

With the arrival of Maria Jesus (2009) Q takes brightness and hope - There's somebody!
We are already two! Maybe there are more people looking to live like this and we find us!

The strength of two women, gives birth and starts up Q.
Our hopes did not hesitate that soon we would be more, until forming a small community of "hermits".
Really, that's what we've always wanted.
A dynamic hermit be, active in the search for a life of integrity.
‹‹Ora, labora e convive›› "Pray, works and lives together" (spirituality, economics and ethics).

Maria Jesus and I we spent seven years together but alone,
nobody appeared with similar concerns and clear willingness to perform them.
We passed a lot of obstacles, many crises, the spiritual force of both was what
allowed us to resist and go forward; an intense internal work that made us grow,
become aware of many things, each one in its depth.

Time reveals that Mary Jesus came to give birth to the project but not to develop it,
that her deep intention was to retire in Q, once the community was underway.
But the community does not arrive.
A new crisis makes clear what Maria Jesus needs, and that is how in autumn 2014
she decides to retire from active life that requires Q, becoming a passive founding
member until the end of July 2016, when definitely leaves the project;
which is not so much that she goes, but she disengages from all responsibility.

All this closes a cycle in Q and stands me alone face up to a project, a place and a way of life.
But Q is not 1 person doing everything.
Q can only have full meaning with a minimum of 3 people, the inflection point to the community.
What will happen with Q if more people do not appear?
Obviously it has no sense, if the minimum of people do not appear, then Q will have to die.

And 10 years are already many ... .

Today again I feel the need to reflect on what it means create a community in relation
to a alternative lifestyle project, seated on the periphery of the current system.

If I ask me about the purpose of a community, I get to say that it is helping each other
to move towards a common end and good. That "X" people agree on something and run it,
is like a miracle, when it does, not fail, it works. Agreeing can be relatively easy,
but to execute an idea is what differentiates the various types of involvement in a project.
The idea itself and daily live tests the people involved.

One has to be a community spirit to be part of a community.
I have very clear my tendency to the community,
which for me it is not so much to live and be always together,
but the joining in forces and capabilities to establish a ‹‹state of reality››.
The community creates culture, and that's what impels me to do Q,
something that gives me sens and at the same time it is beyond me.
I believe in the power of community, because two heads see more than one,
8 arms can more than 4, ...; and because in the inevitable coexistence,
each recognized ego is a bond least in the process of liberation.

Only a small number of people may want and be prepared to make the leap to Q.
A shift that makes, I would say by instinct, that one "vacates the order",
withdraws from the conventional world and life.

There are no so much people who want to dispense with many of the comforts of actual's world,
to live simply in the countryside.
And one will not be happy in Q if needs to listen to the radio or watch TV, to eat meat, bread,
sugar, milk, fried, be up to date technology, to have 22 degrees room temperature in winter,
a normal water toilet, refrigerator, freezer, etc.
Certain things of the old paradigm no longer occur in Q,
and is not for renuntiation but for unnecessity.
And there are no laws or rules, as some interpret, are trends.
Trends that have made possible to mould a lifestyle, here and now,
of quite minimal environmental impact compared to conventional style.
Without to coincide with these trends, the proposed community will not be possible.
In the same way that if one has no ascetic trend or vocation,
not will endure the solitude and silence containing the valley.

Q is halfway between bareback live in a cave and live in a house with all comfort;
nor it is so extreme in austerity nor is so extreme in comforts,
which are nothing else than technological mediations.
Some people have us by radicals, when we are truly an example of possible life in between.
And that has been one of the main obstacles of the project,
the rare combination of ingredients that integrates.

To find people who can enjoy both working with hoe in the vegetable garden,
as outlining a synthesis of a philosophical system on the computer,
cleaning a drytoilet or repairing the roof with mortar,
as reciting mantras or meditating as open sky on a hill, etc.
That versatility is generally rare among people, it involves to integrate the 5 elements.

In short, Q meets many remote or difficult aspects of finding today among people,
being almost a miracle if it consolidates. Q is for a minority, I am full aware of it.

There are days that I swing, doubts arise, which are nothing more than fears;
It has not been conceived Q to be a leader of a project, not to run it alone.
I'm not interested in leadership, yes in the co-direction and co-organization.

There are days that I feel the clear evidence that I'm doing the best I can do today,
in this world. Really, in the last 12 years, I have not found nothing more honest,
coherent and free than Q.

Something say me to keep going day by day.
Fate will tell if like-minded people appear to develop Q in its fullness.

Meanwhile, time passes.
Today I apprehend that to live is to be present.

Thanks for listening and bring this story to whom may know or be in contact
with possible like-minded people to the project.

Neus