place-based life Archives - Earthaven Ecovillage https://www.earthaven.org/tag/place-based-life/ An aspiring ecovillage in a mountain forest setting near Asheville, North Carolina. Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:58:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.2 The Art of Receptivity https://www.earthaven.org/spirit-and-culture/the-art-of-receptivity/ https://www.earthaven.org/spirit-and-culture/the-art-of-receptivity/#respond Thu, 28 Apr 2022 16:58:06 +0000 https://www.earthaven.org/?p=5221 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 […]

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

]]> sound-ceremony-art-of-receptivity

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.

]]> https://www.earthaven.org/spirit-and-culture/the-art-of-receptivity/feed/ 0 Spend A Week At My Place https://www.earthaven.org/earthaven-education/spend-a-week-at-my-place/ https://www.earthaven.org/earthaven-education/spend-a-week-at-my-place/#respond Sat, 29 May 2021 18:01:44 +0000 https://www.earthaven.org/?p=4632 We will play, we will tour, we will work, we will talk, we will learn, we will connect, we will grow. If you’ve been thinking of visiting or moving or emulating or experiencing Earthaven Ecovillage, now is your chance. You will experience many aspects of our imperfect but valiant attempts at regenerative systems. And you’ll […]

The post Spend A Week At My Place appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

]]>

We will play, we will tour, we will work, we will talk, we will learn, we will connect, we will grow.

If you’ve been thinking of visiting or moving or emulating or experiencing Earthaven Ecovillage, now is your chance.

You will experience many aspects of our imperfect but valiant attempts at regenerative systems. And you’ll meet people, animals, plants, fireflies, businesses, and farms.

All the deets are here.

Whether or not you come here, let me tell you about place. Place, I have come to understand, is sacred. Here’s what one of my favorite writers, Barry Lopez author of Arctic Dreams (1986), for which he won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, has to say about place:
When we enter the landscape to learn something, we are obligated, I think, to pay attention.

  • To approach the land as we would a person, by opening an intelligent conversation.
  • To stay in one place, to make that one long observation a fully dilated experience.
  • To give the land credit for more than we imagine.

In these ways we begin to find a home, to sense how to fit a place.

To me, a long observation is my aspiration. I hope that by living a place-based life, I can make that observation into a relationship.

Wherever you are right now, that place is sacred. May you begin or continue the intelligent conversation.

The post Spend A Week At My Place appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

]]> https://www.earthaven.org/earthaven-education/spend-a-week-at-my-place/feed/ 0