Everything is soooo green!

This view of the Village Green from Council Hall Plaza in May has lots to say about how much warmer and earlier Spring and Summer came this year. Still, it’s hard to complain about beautiful weather. Down on the Green, ball game lovers of all ages congregate on weekends and after potlucks for soccer or volleyball or for tossing corn sacks and frisbees. The courts move around to minimize wear and tear on our one big lawn for outdoor picnics and celebrations as the beautiful weather carries on.

Behind the camera in the shot of the Village Green (above), old-timers, new members and students have all worked side by side several times a week rebuilding paths, evolving the stone seating and gardens in the plaza outside Council Hall, and upgrading infrastructure for the outdoor dining scene.

At right, John and Juan Pablo wrestle the concrete bottom step into place at the entrance to the storage container kitchen. 

Sue Stone (below) continues to glorify the view with flower beds that practically glow!

Green is a color of the heart, where the green meme of caring and sharing presides. This season’s cusp from Spring into Summer, with its peak at Summer Solstice, has been showing us in dramatic ways how love can survive and spread through many years of community life, its promises, its challenges, and its rewards. May the blessings of Summer abound!

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Earthaven’s 15th anniversary celebration began with the Founders’ Dinner on Thursday, September 10, and continued with a parade and ceremony Friday afternoon, September 11.

           The Founding Day parade and celebration used the analogy of our community as a flock of birds, each of us carrying part of the load and trading off leadership. Puppeteers from the Elkland Arts Center in Virginia helped create a large bird puppet, which led the parade.

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During the school year, kids who attend the Forest Children’s Program can be seen scampering across the Village Green at least three days a week, while several, mostly older kids commute to schools in Black Mountain or to their other parent’s locale in Asheville.

Back in June, I became curious about whether these lucky younguns were going to stay around all Summer, or go off to other adventures, and here’s what I was told. In “the Brandon and Tanya family,” Brandon wrote: “Aleah [Tanya’s 11-year-old] has been visiting Kentucky and Missouri with her Dad, and will be going on a trip to Indiana and Massachusetts with us in July. Here one week and with Dad one week after that. Aurora [Brandon’s ex-partner Brandi’s 9-year-old] will also come on the trip to IN and MA; and while at home she is doing an outdoor leadership program called Task. (Willow, the baby, will, of course, accompany the family, as she approaches her first birthday in September.)

Mihaly offered this list on behalf of 7-year-old Tessa, who lives during the school year with her Mom in Nashville: playing troll under the new bridge, eating homemade raw ice cream, jumping on the trampoline, watching movies, building a fort, swimmin’ in the hole, riding bikes, sleeping late, picking blueberries, helping with chores and construction, massage nights, contra dancing, reading at bedtime, dressing up, playing cards, listening to her CDs, eating candy at the Trading Post, walking Bridgit (the Cow), collecting eggs, playing in the woods, double-slumber parties, writing in her diary, putting on skits.

Holly wrote from Main Street: “Rose is working one day a week at the Inn on Mill Creek, a B & B near Ridgecrest. She is also apprenticing with [our neighbor] Rainbow in order to learn how to paint murals, and going to the Thursday contra dances as much as she can. She practices her guitar every day. She was accepted into, and leaves tomorrow, for a program called CLIMBE (Center for Learning and Investigation in Mountain Backcountry Ecosystems), which is done through Montreat College. It’s a 6-day scientific backpacking expedition for rising 8th through 12th graders, in which they’ll hike from Mount Mitchell down to Montreat and test water quality as they come down. There will be 10 kids at a time and the program runs for 6 weeks total, so 60 kids were accepted from over 100 applicants from around the country. She is also helping around the house, working in the garden, and hanging out with friends at Earthaven. ” Holly continued: [Rose’s brother] “Eli is not doing much this summer! Aside from some EH and town playdates, he goes to work with me two days a week. It’s a little boring there, but he reads a lot. He has also done a math camp with the TLC director and math teacher. Both kids will likely spend some time in Indiana and Ohio with extended family this summer.”

We also got an update from Jill on daughter Mira’s behalf (although I’m surprised that articulate 8-year-old didn’t write her own!): “Mira’s first 2 wks at EH were great! She joined the Sister Stitch group, which inspired her to sew a purse for Fran, which was well received at Fran’s b’day party. Mira also enjoyed a great b’day celebration with Cory getting into the mud/clay pit!! Mira has been enjoying spending time with the other kids, bike riding, berry picking, going to the swimming hole, planting seeds, harvesting, picking up our harvest at the CSA, chasing the salamanders. She put together a 500-piece puzzle the A&A folks loaned her. She is a bookworm, and while Jill is at Qigong class, Mira is somewhere in the magic treehouse book collection off on adventures with the characters. Greg took her out on a library trip, and got her the new Peter Pan DVD. She has a charmed summer life, and we’ve only just begun. We make our rounds with dinner dates. Life is good!”

Seems like we got the goods on most of the girls, and on Eli, but we know our other fellas Gailen, Nick and Joshua, Cory, and Yeshua and Otus were out there swimming, picking berries, going to town with their folks, checking out the woods’ creatures, and playing lots of games, too.

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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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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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