When I was in my teenage years, I lived across the street from a playground and baseball park. I would walk almost every day around the park with my two dogs, and admire the beauty of the trees flourishing there — especially one weeping willow tree. She was nestled into her own little alcove among the chaos of the baseballs flying around, and the laughter and shrieks coming from the playground swings. There was a bench next to her to start a conversation with her and to marvel over how her branches fell into cascades of teardrop leaves that enveloped and held whoever was near.

I felt like she was the embodiment of my soul.
Like I was those branches.
And in some ways, she reflected back to me my grief and my gifts that I had yet to discover until I was an adult … when I would have some roots to anchor into in order to be present with all that would unfurl inside of me.

This weeping willow tree reminds me of one of the goals that Earthaven strives towards:

Goal 13: We recognize elders as the trunk and children as the fruit of our village tree, and collectively prioritize what all the parts of our “tree” need to thrive. 

All parts of the tree are valuable and vitally needed for our necessary expansion and growth. The children are the fruits of our labor, the accumulation of our wisdom, and the future of shaping our world. They are the next wave of presence and consciousness and awareness that our planet desperately needs for solutions, change, and hope.

And so my hope is that they may know and be seen in their gifts and be celebrated with unconditional love. That they may be held in their expansion and contraction by us — the parents, the elders, the friends, the family, and the mentors. My prayer is that we invest in them and nurture them so that they may burst like ripe fruit with their juicy sweetness into our world.

How are you investing in the next generation? 

I invite you to have the ultimate intentional community family experience this summer with us. Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Week this July 31 through Aug 6 is a deep dive into the embodied essence of Earthaven and its members through events, work days, and classes to further your understanding of community living.

Simultaneously, bring your kids to Eco-Explorers Adventure Week from Aug 1 through 5, our summer program where they will experience community with other children who love nature. This program is also available as a day camp for those of you that would like to commute.

Be your part of the tree … because we need all to thrive.

Your tree hugging friend,

Jill Lacasse xx

The post Children are the Fruit appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

There I am. Arms, back and legs sprawled out on the yoga mat, with a blanket over me, and a bolster under my knees. I would say this posture is as vulnerable as it gets. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. Just my body, my mind, and the many sounds enveloping me. I hear the birds chirping in the distance. A sweet soft wind subtly liberates the leaves on their branches. Children laugh and dogs bark in the distance. And then come the instruments.

The sound ceremony begins.

As we drop into the presence of the moment, we enter into a deep space of receptivity. What I’ve learned is that this experience is called nada yoga — the art of deep listening. The art of getting out of our own way and getting quiet. It is the yoga of remaining open as a vessel to what wants to re-emerge from the past, what wants to come into the present, and what has yet to be in the future.

To practice this type of yoga, first, we must pause and take in our environment. Pay attention to the nuances and observe the interactions among beings. And then come back again and again. Only then can we approach our relationship in the most aligned way possible for all involved. You wouldn’t go up to a stranger and say “wanna get married?” It’s the same kind of thing. We need to court the creatures, the spirits of the land, and the ecosystem that is weaving this web on the foundation of the mountain, the ocean, the forest, and the river.

And when we say YES to allowing our environment to wash over us, we build rich and nourishing relationships with the beings in our energetic field and we allow our place and space to shape our experience and perspective in this life. We become healing agents for the earth and all that walk on it.

This is the dance of receptivity and action at its finest. 

How can we use the power of receptivity to live and move in a way that supports the ecosystems of the land and people around us?

How can we choose to attune to our environments while also supporting our own needs and desires?

And how can we live in right relationship so that we become tuning forks for the earth and its creatures?

I encourage you to check out Place-Based Living, our new, self-paced online course that details the journey of Earthaven, moving from a consumer culture to a land-based, place-based life. This course looks at the geographic and cultural context for the Earthaven project, and then examines how creating Earthaven in this context influenced the building of our systems, including our homes, roads, agricultural fields, and power, water and waste systems.

I invite you to take a few minutes today to be still, to listen, to learn, and to respond from a place of attunement and connection to the people and land around you.

Your evolving tuning fork,
Jillian xx

The post The Art of Receptivity appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

A churning in my soul and a restlessness in my heart signaled to me that I needed a change. I felt the strong call to move to a self-sustaining embodied community from my smaller spiritual community in California.

The three years I spent in Cali were a time of silent retreat and spiritual initiation. Now, I was craving to be warmly engaged with the world through relationships and contributing to a larger vision and mission in a conscious and deliberate way. My chapter was closing in California. I trusted in the void that was my next steps —  the free fall of endless possibility.

Then I found Earthaven and felt pulled to register for the Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend.

When I first arrived in Asheville and we were driving up to Earthaven, I could feel the crystalline energy of the Appalachian mountains, and so much joy and expansion filled my heart and body. Everything was screaming yes! I was pleasantly surprised by how Earthaven was literally in the middle of a forest! The land felt well loved, alive, and thriving compared to the crisp grassy land of California.

There were around 30 people at the Experience Weekend, including a large group who were thinking about starting an intentional community in Ohio. Little did I know that we were going to be creating our own ecosystem during the weekend and that I would connect on many different levels with the people there. I met some incredible people, and we shared stories, songs, visions, and our hearts. I felt an instant connection to the facilitators — NikiAnne, Farmer, and Becky — and their embodied essence and passion for Earthaven. It felt expansive to know that I could grow in this environment where body-based practices, grief and ritual, and connection to nature are celebrated and embraced.

I felt grounded and connected to the land through our hikes together from each neighborhood and I loved exploring the possibilities of how people choose to build their homes and live on the land. The food was delicious and prepared with such love and intention. I loved that the meals were inclusive of everyone’s dietary needs, and created from quality and sustainable whole foods, with some grown on the land. We went on a wild foraging walk with Dimitri; I learned all about the abundant native friends growing on the land and tasted their sweet and intricate notes. I gained knowledge about the building of eco-friendly homes, the governing system, how Earthaven has made consensus decisions for 27 years, and the history and stories of the people.

I knew I had found home when I felt a sense of belonging to this group of people who carried the ultimate vision of a regenerative culture that is receptive to the changing needs of its people and the land that is so cherished and honored. I felt my own growth edge would be challenged here and sensed the expansion that would come with being immersed in this level of connection.

All the stars aligned, you could say, and now I am working for Earthaven’s educational nonprofit two months in, steeping in the unfolding of rich relationships, and joyfully sharing my heart and gifts with the community. I feel so incredibly blessed that Earthaven has welcomed me with such open arms and willing hearts.

The Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend is a great way to become immersed into an intentional community. It gives you a snapshot into what life is like at Earthaven if you decide to make the move. I highly recommend the Experience Weekend or Experience Week if you are interested in gaining a realistic understanding of the challenges of living in a community, as well as basking in the immense abundance and richness that come from building relationships and being together through all the facets of an ecovillage.

Upcoming Offerings:

Earthaven’s School of Integrated Living (SOIL) offers the Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend twice this year: May 27-30 and October 7-10. There’s also a new Earthaven Action Week following experience weekend so you can extend your visit and interact more with the Earthaven community.

I look forward to meeting you there, and giving you a little taste of the embodied essence of Earthaven!

Much love,
Jillian

The post Jillian’s Experience Weekend Adventure appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.