Monday afternoon basketball back behind the storage barn

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(Transcript from video)

Alinahh:

Okay, well I have a few things… more than a few….. but there are a few things I’m passionate about one of them is foraging. I like to call it original earth food or original earth garden food or original garden food rather than wild because it’s what we were given at the beginning of time.

One of the original garden foods was this one: chickweed, which is delicious. I eat it a lot; I make a lot of spring green salads with it.

One of my other passions is singing. In this last year I’ve been writing song I want to share. A song about this beautiful plant that I adore called chickweed and it’s other name is Stellaria.

I’ve been teaching this to the kids here in the Ecovillage and some of the young ones have really taken it up. It’s really fun to be walking with them and we’ll start singing it together. We’ll be skipping down the road singing the song. Here it goes..

Skipping down a path on a blue sky day
the sun shimmers down on my head. A…

See my friend chickweed on the edge of the field
I ask if I can harvest for a meal.

Stellaria your taste and charm reminds me I’m a creature so wild.
I place your tiny white flowers in the mouth of a fairy child

Yum!

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(Transcript from video)

Courtney Brooke:

I was just going to get something from the barn but what is this?

Oh my Goddess, it’s the barnyard basketball team.

Barnyard basketball team.

Front row seats in the tractor bucket.

This is the way!

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Transcript from Video:

Hi folks, my name’s Steve Torma, and I’m coming to you from Earthaven Ecovillage. I’d like to share with you five of my favorite moments of being here at Earthaven since the beginning really.

The probably the first one that comes to my mind is the first day that we as a group ritually entered the land on September 11th 1994. We formed like a bird as we all walked in and it was just really special moment that I will always cherish.

The next one that comes to my mind is working on building the council hall. We did it all ourselves. We were kind of figuring it out as we went along. It was a lot of fun . It was very exciting; a lot of both playful and creative energy going on.

Another one for me is playing sports on the village green. Kickball has been one of my favorites because it’s so inclusive of people of so many different ages and skill levels. Especially watching the kids learning the rules and having fun. Making sure that we don’t keep score so that people feel bad and all that kind of thing. I just really have a lot of fun just being out there running around playing.

I’ve also had some great beautiful moments in the stream near the neighborhood where I live, Village Terraces. There’s this gorgeous stream and a little waterfall and it’s such, especially in the hot weather, it’s such a beautiful cooling nourishing sensual experience. I just so, so love that!

Then the last one is the most recent one.  We just had a an NVC class so I call it a level three class and the level of connection between people was so sweet and nourishing to me. The depth of learning. All of us kind of learning together these beautiful principles that help make our lives more wonderful. On our final day we had a gift exchange kind of process where people just offered and asked for all things that they wanted to make our lives more wonderful together. That was a really nourishing experience for me as well the whole class was but especially that last day.

So thanks for listening and look forward to talking to you some more…

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Add value to your and your loved ones’ lives by spending quality time in nature… observing, playing, laughing, and exploring. Below are nature adventures and activities as well as some perspective from Lia Grippo, Reaching Nature Connection Conference Instructor and our colleagues at Wilderness Youth Project. Have fun!

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“If we want our children to have the courage, creativity, wisdom, and care for the planet that will most certainly be required of them, we must give them the opportunity to fall in love with Nature before we ask them to save it.”

~ Lia Grippo, Reaching Nature Connection Conference Instructor and Co-Director of the Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers

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Adventure: Look up!

Take a wander and keep your gaze up as much as possible. Try not to look at the ground. This is a time to notice the clouds, undersides of trees, flying birds, (maybe stars and a moon). So much is going on all around us so much of the time, it is good to remember to change our vantage.

Activity: Flower Pressing

Flowers are abundant this time of year and there is no better time to press them. Plus, when summer comes, they’ll be dried and ready to do crafts with! Gather flowers on a sunny day when there is no dew or mist on the flowers, and then choose one of the following:

• In an old phone book: Lay flowers between pieces of printer paper or newspaper, then put a book on top of the stack and leave them for at least a few days.
• Make your own cardboard press: instructions on the Wilderness Youth Project resource portal!

Send us photos of your journey! We’d love to see them and share with others in the Earthaven and Wilderness Youth Project communities.

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Over 100 people passionate about living and promoting compassionate consciousness gathered in August to learn, play, and celebrate together. It was a wonderful weekend full of life… smiles, tears, dancing, deep connections, new friendships, and wonderment filled the village. If you weren’t able to come this year, mark your calendar for next year: July 16-19, 2020. Visit the School of Integrated Living’s website for more information.

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Soon several young folks at Earthaven will be turning 18, an age we’ve often considered time to wonder about their relationships to formal membership.

right: Not long ago, three Earthaven teens—Bailey (now 15), brother Brandt (now 18) and Dylan (17 next month)—still had plenty of time to hang out together at home.

Teen-centered activities at Earthaven can be spare, especially with the call of social groups, academia and creative opportunities in the nearby population centers of Black Mountain and Asheville. Thanks to neighbor Griffin Abee’s leadership, most of the teens participate in her teen yoga classes at the Full Circle zendo next door.

 above: Teens at Earthaven now flip their lids for yoga.

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Nothing seems to entertain us and our neighbors more than the simple, sweet and even silly performances our children regale us with from time to time. Most recently, Tricia Baehr coordinated a multi-media event with music, dance, theatrics and short films with the children of Earthaven and the greater community in our Valley. Billed as the Valley Kids Variety Show, highlights included banjo playing, original choreography, song and dance, special guests the Turkey Creek Rooster Tails (mountain music-playing siblings from Leicester, NC), a “witchy” performance from Shakespeare’s MacBeth Act 4, Scene 1, and more: an original one act play (nature-lover gets stung by bee), a Rubik’s Cube master-solver, and a finale of T.S. Eliot poems from “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” Even kids who didn’t appear on stage participated with photography, filmmaking, set design, and technical assistance, and parents and kids worked together to learn what it takes to put on a show and entertain their neighbors.

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