Our teenagers keep growing, and soon the oldest ones will no longer be teens. Mira Biddle Tieman, first baby of a member born since Earthaven began, spent as much time living at Earthaven as her Mom, Tara, could conjure, while living and working in Asheville the rest of the time. They traveled together around the globe, and Mira was homeschooled for many years.

More recently, Mira moved between her Dad, Jim’s, house and Mom’s place at Westwood Cohousing, until Mira moved into a yome on the property of her new mentor, Marston Blow.

Mira turned 18 in March, and with her Mom’s encouragement began designing an “initiation” ceremony she decided to hold at her home in the forest. Old and new friends joined in for blessings and to share beloved and precious memories. Girlfriends sang songs written for the occasion; later, the whole company lifted Mira up and sang Mira, you are beautiful/Mira, you are strong/So wonderful to be with/We’ll help you carry on… (the song we sing for new members).

Right: Mira and Steve sing and dance to the Galaxy Song, which he taught her many years ago, while Mom gets a closeup.

Later, a silent walk to the grove at Hidden Valley led to more songs and a storytelling circle.

(Left: That’s Mira on the right.)

Tara reported Mira felt honored by the “awesome send-off ” and the demonstration of support for her journey. The only sad note (if any) is knowing Mira belongs to the world now, and isn’t planning to spend the bulk of her 20s helping to grow the community we hope she’ll nevertheless to return to.

Teenagers have always been the scarcer of age groups at Earthaven, so we got a nice surprise recently when Tricia and John Baehr (right,with 16-year-old twins Birke and Brandt and 13-year-old sister Bailey) told us they’ve decided to stick around and become Full Members. They’ve been both residents and neighbors since 2012, and have added so much good energy to the community.

Though the long-term residency of our teenagers is uncertain given the social and educational opportunities calling from the world, for now we often get to see eldest resident teen Dylan McBridewood and (youngest) Liefke Carwyn along with close neighbors Kayla Burstein and Katie Walters, at most social events and many games on the Village Green. Vive le adolescence!

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We’ve known for quite a few years that new members coming into Earthaven needed a lot more coaching about our history, plans, policies and practices than they were able to get through the normal course of a Provisional Membership. We’ve required and offered trainings in Consensus Decision-Making since we were ourselves trained by “the experts,” but putting on a program about the broader scope of permaculture and land use as we interpret it has been a daunting commitment to keep. At last, this year—thanks to Diana Leafe Christian, Lee Warren, and myself, we presented the now required and first ever orientation to the background and current application of permaculture principles and land use operations at Earthaven. It was a terrific hit!

          New and prospective members who attended the day-and-a-half event were awed by the comprehensive and hard-earned expertise that has gone into the documents and decisions about running our community literally from the ground level. Pieces fell together like a jigsaw puzzle as old and newer members took the journey from macro to micro view of Earthaven. Beginning with a sunrise walk on Round Mountain led by Chris Farmer, treating us to a long, clear view of our property from several miles away, the day was filled with introductory presentations on permaculture, the Earthaven Site Plan, “multiple intelligences,” the hard work of transitional living, and the shock and awe of land development (aka destruction before construction). Breakfast and lunch were served by our culinary artists, and the day moved towards its end with an on-the-ground tour of the Village Terraces neighborhood, where the enormous task of applying our values and experience has gone so well. A brief look at our formal land use and ecological documents closed the first day.

          On Sunday, we also began outdoors, with a silent walk to Hidden Valley, led again by Chris, who offered a brief history and catalog of our forest at the end of our walk. I led a short exercise in “making love” with the tree of our choice, and we walked back to the Village Center among what may now be a more distinctly recognized community of tree beings.

          Shawn Swartz was with us on Sunday, and he gave us an awesome semester-in-an-hour review of forestry and so-called sustainable forestry practices. (Shawn is now the Forest Warden at nearby Warren Wilson College, where he lives with Holly, Rose and Eli—hurray… and we miss them!)

          We barely had enough time to complete the program with a discussion of forestry and agriculture at Earthaven and then it was time to eat our prepared lunch before the upcoming Council meeting. We did make time for an evaluation segment, and here’s a sampling of comments:

“Lots of info about the meaning of living at EH. Of immense value!”

 

“Stimulating. Learned lots, including ideas for my garden and orchard.”

 

“Liked multidimensional aspects. Would love a series from our ‘experts.’”

 

“Inspired to do projects. Nice to integrate this after 2-1/2 years!”

 

“Appreciate all the work so far, the breadth of content, all the alternatives.”

 

 “Gratitude for so much addressed on such deep levels.”

 

“Very informative for here or elsewhere.”

 

 “Never have to be bored again! Feel motivated, but with peace of mind.”

 

“Best weekend I’ve had in a log time. I could handle two more weeks like this.”

 

“Felt particularly benefited by having already received my permaculture certification and been at EH a while, giving me a context for all this information.”

 

“Interested to hear about how much has changed.”

 

“Glad it wasn’t all documents and codes, but also spiritual and connecting.”

 

          Of course, our presenters have a list of potential improvements and elaborations. We will certainly plan to reserve a whole weekend for next year’s orientation!

 

          Diana’s presentation on ecovillage economics was held two weeks later. Her review of the global ecovillage world, what’s worked and what’s not in a variety of locations, and a look at what’s already happening at Earthaven contributed both inspiration and confidence for the continuing evolution of a “thriving local economy” here in our own extended community.

          Most segments of these events were recorded and will be available for review in a few weeks.

One final note: when the weekend was over, I left with a certain sadness, as if something very important was still missing from our offerings to new members. And then it hit me—we teach governance and land use, two essential legs of the Earthaven stool, to our incoming members, but we don’t yet have anything to say about the vast amount of experience and practice available to us in the spiritual and healing arts. As I bemoaned this fact, Lee pointed out that nothing prevents us from creating part three of our new-member orientation, and the list we’ve started gathering on this huge topic promises to turn into yet another exciting, member-led event down the road.

The post Orientation: Permaculture and Land Use at Earthaven…and More! appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Suchi, Kimchi, and Gaspar have been facilitating forum at Earthaven for the past couple years.  Arjuna, Debbie, Mana, Steve, Clark, and Red Moon Song are joining them as a forum facilitation team with community forums scheduled twice a month.

Our abundant spring rains have turned into hot summer sun, and our gardens are growing! We harvested garlic, squash, beans, greens, and lots of berries, and even our first few tomatoes.

We celebrated the summer solstice with yoga, meditation, a ceremony at Hidden Valley, and a work day to deepen our swimming hole!

Earthaven hosted our third group of college students over summer solstice weekend. This group, from Wake Forest University, was on days 19-21 of a 27-day field trip throughout the Southeast. During a break from their studies they built a grape trellis and mulched paths in the Forest Garden.

Our teachers have been busy preparing for their summer programs. Andrew Goodheart and friends are hosting a permaculture certification course at Earthaven in August (see article later in the newsletter), Corinna is preparing for her August Wise Women Immersion course, and the women at Red Moon Herbs are preparing for the fifth annual Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference.

Diana has had a busy spring and summer traveling around the world teaching and speaking about intentional communities and ecovillages. Her travels so far include teaching the Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) course of GEN’s Gaia Education program in the Philippines (see photo), being a keynote presenter at Portland’s Village Building Convergence, and participating in the International Cohousing Summit as one of the few Americans invited. Between speaking engagements she edits the Ecovillages Newsletter.

The post News notes – Summer 2009 appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Tours of our growing community of 60 people were given. Opening ceremony was held in Hidden Valley, to which we hiked, chanting “Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath and fire my spirit.” Around the ceremonial circle, spirits of the directions, future generations, and great living souls were called to be with us. Everything was translated into Spanish.

Two hundred people spoke their names and bioregions, offered a silent prayer, and tossed a symbolic stick into the fire. Then came drumming, flute playing, dancing and celebration late into the night. Sunday morning we gathered on the Village Green, where the outline of North America had been traced in grain, each of us standing in our respective bioregion.

Later, inside Council Hall, where a huge patchwork turtle created by a previous Congress had been hung on one wall, our team of facilitators helped focus on the week’s activities. Besides scheduled speakers and workshops and a Council of All Beings led by John Seed, time was left for “Open Space” meetings. Children’s plant walks, puppet making, painting, and singing activities were planned. A schedule of healing and creative arts took shape, including yoga, massage, music jams, tai chi, plant walks, and natural fermentation.

On Monday, Angelica Flores, a traditional healer from Mexico, smudged us with copal smoke, intending for all: “That every day, we care for ourselves and others; let go of egotism we bring from outside; join hearts and will as one being with the permission of the guardians of the sacred, all the elemental beings and the force of the Spirit who lived here long ago.”

The Bioregional agenda of building strong local economies permeated many of the week’s workshops and conversations. One evening, men and women met separately. The men went to Hidden Valley and walked back holding hands, eyes closed except for the leader, practicing trust. They returned to Council Hall just as the women’s spiral dance was ending, the women singing “Mother, sister, daughter, friend,” embracing each other with moist eyes. High point!

On Thursday evening, our Central and South American participants put on a cultural presentation including songs about the dangers of genetically modified crops and cheap corn for export. There was rap poetry, power point presentations and tales of shamans among the Kogi of Colombia. Then special sweets and drinks were offered, followed by drumming and salsa dancing. Plenaries full group sessions to work on the mission, positions, and future plans of the Congress rounded out the week in a whirlwind of consensus-based decision-making processes.

Weather-wise, we had rain, rain, and more rain while hurricanes pounded the East Coast. Campers kept spirits high and handled conditions amazingly well. Many new friends were made, old friendships rekindled, and hopes and blessings for our precious world were reinvigorated.

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