above: The mural of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, long the entry piece to the Forest Garden, finally came down after falling into disrepair. It had been a group painting inspired and led by early member Ananda Vedanta. 

Earthaven’s mission is to be a learning model of what responsible Earth-respectful people can do to shelter species, water, and themselves through the inevitable stresses of major planetary transformation. Alive and becoming more conscious at this pivotal time in our story, we have the opportunity to help evolution along, even when some of the changes are saddening. So we learn to let go of structures (or parts of them), relationships, even lifetimes when we approach our own body’s limits, and come together with as much good-natured, well-intended attitude and commitment as we can assemble.

The big changes we’ve been evolving with lately are neighborhood (or pod) re-organization, folks becoming Full Council Members after years of delay, new folks arriving who are interested in joining, and—perhaps the most transformative of all—several beloved members dying over the last few years.

We’ve also had some clear seasonal shifts—the blip of a short, beautiful Spring, then Summer in May—85° temps several days in a row, then close to freezing the next night! We’ve had windy weather and, in June, a solid week of heavy rain. But, still, the lilacs bloomed, the irises disrobed, peonies opened with scents to breathe for, and the trees budded out and blossomed with their age-old, optimistic lifeblood flowing in guilds and life communities along soil-enriched, sun-drenched gardens and orchards. We can step outside, at dawn or dusk, in the lightness of the season, to garden, harvest bumper berry crops, visit or just be here! In the full sun of midday we can choose to bake our bones or wade in the creeks, or both, and in the dark of night, under mystical starry skies, we can listen to the symphony of (mostly small, but not all!) critter life.