Written by Arjuna da Silva

It was hard to lose three of our most outstanding members last year, though it sure showed us what kind of folks our community is made of. Kimchi, Goddess of Beauty and Determination. Suchi, Queen of Loyalty and Cooperation. Chuck, Champion of The Good Fight and Lama of Permaculture—they all carried the banner for Earthaven for over a decade (Chuck having been a founder). These principled people helped make us who we are today.

Folks feel so much gratitude that we were able to help them as much as we did, when their lives were ending. It brought us such a strong dose of sobriety about the precious value of a human life—and more connection than we ever might have felt had we not shared these experiences.

Another dear early Earthaven member, David Tree Malpass, also passed away last year. Tree helped design the Council Hall, and participated in much community planning from the very beginning. When feeling light-hearted, I say they left to work things out for us in eternity.

(remembering, from left to right: Kimchi Rylander, Susan (Suchi) Lathrop), Chuck Marsh, David Tree Malpass.

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When you fall in love with community-mates, over time and through all kinds of circumstances, you develop a relationship very much like family. When they leave or die, it’s an amazing loss and also a treasure trove of meaningful connection and nourishing memory. We can’t say enough about them, but we try….

Susan (Suchi) Lathrop lived and created sacred space at Earthaven for fourteen years, and was stricken with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), a disabling encroachment on natural body movement, not long after her best friend, Kimchi Rylander, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It’s hard for us to accept and yet when it faces you square on, it challenges us to rise to the situation and lift things to their highest level. And rise we did, with Kimchi (who died in February) and again with Suchi.

Both women wanted to live their final days in the community they loved and so a large contingent of Earthaven members came together to do whatever was necessary to see these beloved women through their end-of-life transitions.

right: Suchi & Kimchi greet firefighters last year.

The following obituary is about Suchi’s life within and beyond Earthaven.

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Susan (aka Suchi) Lathrop passed away in peace at home in Earthaven Ecovillage on May 17, surrounded by beloved friends. She had been suffering with a quickly declining condition of ALS. A wake and funeral were also held at Earthaven.

Suchi was a beloved leader in her community, not just at Earthaven, but in and around Asheville. She was outspoken and generous, and was the innovator of many community functions that have since become Earthaven traditions, including the weekly Coffee & Trade event on Tuesday mornings. Her guidance and determination made a huge difference! She was the Earthaven Firekeeper (like a President, only more so), and had a voice in many key committees over the years.

right: Suchi at the Trading Post.

As a core member of the Hut Hamlet neighborhood, Suchi co-owned the Tribal Condo with her beloved friend, Kimchi Rylander, for over a decade. She was an ardent gardener and filled her greenhouse with food all year round.

Suchi grew up in upstate New York, focusing her academic studies in psychology and library science. She has been a dedicated supporter of the Palestinian cause in Israel, and a leading member of the local Friends group in bringing attention to the issues. She was also Clerk of the Black Mountain Friends Meeting for several years.

Suchi’s hope is that people who want to honor her life donate a day or two of volunteer support to local non-profits in her name and the name of her community, Earthaven.

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Kimchi Rylander came into my life 10 years ago at the Southeastern Permaculture gathering in Celo, NC. In the last year of her life, we were on “The Divine Feminine” committee for the gathering and when we met she would share her perspective, saying, “This is not ‘my cancer,’ this is ‘our cancer’ and what is playing out in my body is what is being done to our momma Earth!”

When she received the terminal diagnosis, she said, “I’m dying and the cancer has spread throughout my body. So I want to work on dying well and supporting a positive death-ing culture.” I still remember feeling such awe and inspiration, mixed with sadness and curiosity.

A few other examples of how Kimchi held up the light of her wildly creative heart in the face of death and said, “I’m going out with style!”:

– She decided to have a “give-away” because it was so important to her to share the stories of each precious object that might live beyond her.

– She created a “Guess which day Kimchi will croak?!” raffle, the proceeds going towards positive education about death.

I was blessed to be a part of a loving transition team as a death doula during her final weeks at Earthaven. As the cancer took over her body, she spoke much less, and when she did speak it was softer and slower. During one visit with friends she said, “It’s all about love; really, it’s all about love.” She was visited by a river of loved ones who were eager to share their gratitude and love with her.

Kimchi found comfort in being able to walk on her own until the day before her transition. She also wanted to send out a community voicemail I wrote down for her: “It’s time for me to go, and I’ve had a wonderful time in this play box of life. I was happy to do things together, but I have new projects awaiting me….”

left: Kimchi’s funeral procession.

Kimchi passed surrounded by loving witnesses, holding her sister Bridget’s hand. Her body was planted back into the Earth she loved so much on the exact day of her 56th birthday. In her honor, a song group continues to gather to send support during the 9-month Gestation Period some believe it takes to die and travel to the Land of the Ancestors.

above: At Kimchi’s orchard gravesite.

May we long remember the ways Kimchi challenged and inspired us, feel more alive as we remember the unique expression of her life, and sing gratefully and often in her memory.

Earthaven neighbor Sarah Anne Amazon is a dedicated meditator who loves to attend extended retreats, including with prisoners, and to support the little people for a better world. She also loves Nature, cooking, dancing, singing and NVC.

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You’ve come for The Tour. Alone, with your family or friends, or packaged (with your permission) into a group tour. You partake of the guided two-to-three-hour meander around the Village Center and several close-lying neighborhoods. For many of you, it’s a new world. Can it really be done this way? So much to see, wonder about and ask!

By the end of your tour, if you’re full of questions, you can usually get your guide to answer a few more, and later, once you’ve had a chance to digest what you’ve seen and imagined about our neo-tribal village, you can stay in touch and learn more. Become a Supporting Member and come back and camp for free. Make friends and plans.

Chalk art by Kimchi Rylander

What makes Earthaven “neo-tribal?” Well, first of all we recognize our need to be together. We are required to give time and creativity to building a culture that knits us together in seasonal, economic, familial and spiritual ways. This is a felt requirement more than a legislated one, and some people need to let others do what they can’t do themselves.

We ask each other to take more responsibility for our individual and collective relationships with nature than modern Western culture offers, or even allows. What’s neo about it is that we want to infuse our somewhat tribal life with the most beneficial sciences and technologies—the ones that help us live in our chosen world without losing our grip on the one that surrounds us, such as the photovoltaic microgrid in the Hut Hamlet neighborhood (below).

The roster of tour guides includes elders and youngers, founders and even “Exploring Members.”

Right now you can sign up for a (2nd or 4th) Saturday tour or a privately scheduled tour. We request all overnight visitors and campers have a tour so they know where they are and how to get where they want to go!

If you have a particular interest, tell us what it is and there might be a tour guide you’d particularly like to meet.

Recently our guides were asked to share special moments from their tour histories. Long-time member and permaculture teacher Patricia Allison offered these:

Most memorable tour…

The one I gave to Thomas Berry, in 1998 or so. He wanted to be here, but his health prevented it. Seeing the satisfied approval on his face was a gift I’ll carry always.

Strangest question…

Consistently people ask, “Who’s the leader here?” What’s weird is that some refuse to believe we truly don’t have one. They will rephrase it a dozen ways to try to find out who’s in charge!

What’s best about guiding tours…?

I’m proud of what Earthaven has accomplished, and I like to show it off! Since the tour is often prospective members’ first impression, I want to make it a positive experience for them. I’m also a compulsive teacher, and I love presenting a different way of perceiving place and people. It’s a joy to see someone I’ve toured return to live with us. I always feel some pride that my tour may have helped convince them to come back.

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Twenty years ago on September 11, 1994, a dozen people so disillusioned with existing options for satisfying, life-affirming living situations, put their hands and available capital together to put Earthaven Ecovillage on the Western North Carolina map. This year, in the midst of much rethinking and refreshing of goals and potential, we celebrated the theme of Giveaway, a time-honored indigenous peoples’ response to prosperity and abundance. No, we haven’t gotten that big endowment yet, but we recognized our wealth in this special bioregion, this splendid forest, these crystal creeks, these developing farms and gardens, these gorgeous children, the skills and talents among us, and most of all the rich and abundant relationships we’ve formed with one another.

Gathering on the Saturday night before the 11th, we enjoyed a delicious finger-food buffet donated by Tricia, and then joined each other at the community Fire Circle. Carleigh got the fire going with a bow drill (whew!) and then Zev led off a spontaneous offering of stories and memories from our two decades of growth, as winding as the roads that lead us here. Old friends, some who only came around early on but who never lost touch with us, retold favorite memories for the newest EHers to hear.

On Sunday morning, quite a few folks turned up both for Kimchi’s Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) mini-workshop and a Trauma Release session with Gaspar. Gaspar also organized a volley-ball game on the Village Green, and Rainbow coordinated a mural painting party to brighten up the game room that has blossomed inside the old brown storage containers. The younger ecovillagers were given paint and the run of the interior of the game room.

We feasted together on the Village Plaza with local and donated dishes and desserts, and were thrilled to look around and see old friends and former Earthaven family showing up to celebrate with us. A ceremonial circle of gratitude and abundant wishes for the future was followed by a Timeline brainstorm in which we recalled the many big and small events still in our hearts, charting the year of their occurrence as best we could, for a chronological outline of the history of Earthaven. In the afternoon, informal teach-ins and tours were offered, while many just lingered in the Village Center to socialize and absorb the good vibes.

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          Thanks to the fine volunteers who staff the Earthaven Office & Trading Post — and especially Kimchi Rylander, Earthaven’s new Administrative Coordinator — our community is becoming better organized in all the “Air” ways. Kimchi’s goal is to meet our need for ease, clarity for all of our committees with Airspinning functions. She also hopes that working in the Earthaven Office/Trading Post will offer an excellent opportunity for members, work-exchangers, and interns to contribute their gifts and talents.

Mailroom manager redmoonsong notes that our mail is being delivered to boxes in the mailroom trailer by Nicolette, just as it was before getting our new mailboxes on Another Way. Soon we’ll see additional mailboxes in the trailer, shelves for packages, a desk for sorting mail, and a place for visitors to pickup handouts and articles about Earthaven. As weather permits, the outside of the trailer will be washed, primed, and painted so it will provide, as redmoonsong says, “a blank canvas for the next phase.” (To offer ideas and help, see redmoonsong.)

Diana Leafe Christian, who lives in Earthaven’s Forest Garden Neighborhood, is the community’s Airspinner for 2010.    dianaleafechristian.org http://www.EcovillageNews.org

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A yome is a variation on the concept of a yurt. It has eight sides while a yurt is round. It is 18 feet across, has canvas sides and roof, and is completely insulated, with four windows and a wooden door. And… it is locally made by Peter Belt’s Red Sky Shelters.

We installed the used yome on a high deck behind the Tribal Condo, which is home to Suchi, Kimchi, and Marie.

The 24’ by 24’ deck was built by Robert, Darren, and Robin. Thank you! It was quite a project. It is high enough to hang a wooden swing made by our very own Greg Geis, who produces them in his wood shop on the land.

Since we began using the yome three months ago, we have had yoga once a week, hands on healing and shamanic journeying classes, movies, planning sessions, and just plain retreat time. In the future we are interested in having book discussions and small group retreats. It is wonderful to feel that the space meets so many needs.

In addition, our personal guests will have a private place to stay that is airy, dry, and roomy. They will, however, hear the music of the frogs, squawking of the chickens, and the drumming of an occasional piliated woodpecker, as well as a multiplicity of human sounds.

Suchi is a full member at Earthaven with a passion for hospitality and community.

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We’ll remember you. Remember us. We love you, Vedanta. Phrases painted into the collective painting that began the night after Vedanta died, March 22, and was completed on his birthday, April 14 (now officially Ananda Vedanta Music & Art Day) at a “hippie” bash at the White Owl.

It was a beautiful night, and most folks stayed outdoors around the fire, drumming, dancing, remembering the flute music we’ll miss, and the man who brought so much passion for music and art to our community. While some of us danced, and others munched some of Vedanta’s favorite foods, another group watched a video of the 1997 (first annual) Guru Purnima Celebration. That event celebrates the teachings of all spiritual masters, and for years Vedanta and friends held weekend “meditation camps” on the land and shared the meditation techniques Osho designed for stopping “the monkey mind.”

Kimchi was with Vedanta during his illness and death, and was able to set up a continuous slide show tracing his life from his younger days of global travels, through his developing artistic career and, finally, to his body’s end in Florida. A follow-up event in July was also celebrated to honor family members from afar, as a long line of family and friends poured handfulls of Vedanta’s ashes into a hole into which a beautiful Asian Persimmon tree was prominently placed at the foot of the Village Green. A colorful painted banner inscribed with the encouragement to “Enjoy your journey, Vedanta” was hung across the mural he played a major role in creating for the Forest Garden’s greenhouse.

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