Hard to believe this is our first newsletter since January, but it’s been busy and intense all around. Yes, another beloved senior member has taken her last journey—Patricia Allison left the planet (as far as we know) on March 19, after a relatively short bout with cancer. What we will do without Patricia is still a doleful question. A beautiful funeral was held in her honor, as well as a memorial party and (true to Patricia’s spirit) a workday at Medicine Wheel, the neighborhood she began developing with her family many years ago. Meanwhile, long-time Medicine Wheel co-leader Lyndon Felps and not-so-newcomer Deborah Clark are at the helm of the Wheel, following the intensive gardening paths Patricia spearheaded and continuing to house, teach and inspire students and work-exchangers throughout the coming years.

Patricia came to Earthaven as a budding Permaculture teacher, teaming up with Chuck Marsh, Peter Bane and Goodheart Brown, training Earthaven members as well as quite a few folks from around the country, in the basics of permaculture design and the essentials of its application. A Texan with a passion for simplicity, she loved permaculture and teaching it, and inspired hundreds, probably thousands, of students through classes and PDCs at Earthaven, as well as at several other developing communities and conferences. She was a dedicated consensus practitioner who also taught those principles on the road and at home.

For the sake of joy and teaching, Patricia collected songs. She laughingly referred to her favorites as her “eco-feminist spirituals.” They served as a calling in and meal-blessing when folks would circle up for dinner in the Medicine Wheel kitchen, and often had a place within her classes, and daily life. The recording she made of them in 1996 is available in digital form, for free, and on a CD for the cost of shipping. To obtain a copy, please write catherinebrooke@gmail.com.

above: Patricia (left) and students at Medicine Wheel.

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