Transcript:

Hi there.

It’s Courtney Brook here coming to you from my office and sanctuary the forest.

Happy to be in here, as always.

And I wanted to share a little bit with y’all about an upcoming offering that I’ll be sharing at Earthaven EcoVillage in the fall.

So it’s called Deep Ecology and Yoga Retreat, and the body of work of Deep Ecology was founded and initially shared by Joanna Macy and some of her colleagues.

And it was developed in response to her noticing in herself and her own energy in her own body that she is tiring of of trying to make things better on planet Earth, tiring of activism and wanting to be able to keep on going with her efforts and seeing a lot of folks around her doing various, you know, all the different kinds of activism that we do, whether it’s being a school teacher or being a parent or being on the front lines in the forest or, you know, all the other 10,000 things that that we do to try to make life beautiful and good.

And she was noticing that she was needing to find ways to reconnect to herself and reconnect to the source of life and to her calling.

And so she developed this body of work called the Work That Reconnects or Deep Ecology.

And I remember the first time that I participated in Work That Reconnect Deep Ecology offering.

I left there feeling so much more connected to my sense of purpose and to my life and to the Earth that I’m working for.

So in the fall, I’m excited to be offering Deep Ecology and Yoga Retreat with my dear friend and amazing yoga teacher Garrell Bevirt, who is going to be facilitating the yoga portion of the retreat.

So we’ll be nourishing our bodies and nourishing our connection to ourselves and to each other and to all of life, to our ecological identities and to the reason why we do the things that we do.

So whether or not you are considering yourself an activist or wanting to consider yourself an activist or just really needing to deeply connect with your sense of purpose and your path, I really hope to see you there.

And, Yeah, may we find the things in our lives that really re energize us and refuel us and look to each other into the source of life itself when we tire.

So thank you very much, Joanna Macy for this inspiring body of work and hope to see you there.

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We hope to see you in the forest at Earthaven EcoVillage in the fall for Deep ecology and Yoga retreat to reconnect to ourselves, reconnect to each other, and reconnect to the source of our lives.

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Soon several young folks at Earthaven will be turning 18, an age we’ve often considered time to wonder about their relationships to formal membership.

right: Not long ago, three Earthaven teens—Bailey (now 15), brother Brandt (now 18) and Dylan (17 next month)—still had plenty of time to hang out together at home.

Teen-centered activities at Earthaven can be spare, especially with the call of social groups, academia and creative opportunities in the nearby population centers of Black Mountain and Asheville. Thanks to neighbor Griffin Abee’s leadership, most of the teens participate in her teen yoga classes at the Full Circle zendo next door.

 above: Teens at Earthaven now flip their lids for yoga.

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Before River Otter came to Earthaven, she was creating her own lifestyle in New Orleans. She was busy gardening, developing her healing skills, and giving tours of the city. Then Hurricane Katrina struck.

“The storm was really a turning point for me,” she said. “I survived the storm but a lot of people didn’t. It made it clear that if there was something I wanted to do, I had to do it now.”

In the aftermath of the hurricane, activists and relief workers moved into River Otter’s neighborhood. “It was joy beyond belief that my people had come to my neighborhood, but I couldn’t be involved the way I wanted to because I was focusing on my health.”

River Otter was in her late 30s, recovering from a major illness, and her marriage was falling apart. At the same time, she very much wanted to be somewhere where she could start a family.

Then one day, Patricia Allison came to New Orleans to visit her daughter, and someone told her there was a permaculture student living in the neighborhood.

“Patricia knocked on my front door and told me about Earthaven and Medicine Wheel,” she recalled. River Otter visited for a week in 2006 and moved to Earthaven in March of 2007 to apprentice with Red Moon Herbs.

Living in community was challenging at first. “There were times especially in the first year or two that I thought of leaving, but I realized it was really just my own issues. The fear of putting down roots, the fear of commitment.” All in all, it seemed that turning back was not a reasonable option for her anymore. “So I just walked myself through all of that.” River Otter became a full member in 2008.

River Otter gives tours of Earthaven, manages the campground, teaches yoga, organizes rituals, and helps new people integrate into the community. “I’m a really service-oriented person and I’m in a place where I can do what is needed. I feel like my being here has created positive change.”

As for the future, River Otter is committed to learning more about herbal medicine, healing arts, naturopathy, meditation, and yoga. She also hopes to start a family and learn how to achieve more balance in her life.

“My skills are being valued here,” she notes. “Even the skills I’m developing are being valued.”

Being at Earthaven has proved to be much more fulfilling than the life she left in New Orleans. “I felt lonely. I would do all the harvesting and everything and then I’d go to a Vietnamese restaurant and get a bowl of noodle soup ’cause I couldn’t bear to be alone. I can get my needs met in community.”

Davene Wasser came to Earthaven in April 2010 with her son Eli and husband Jamie to simplify her life and live more closely to nature. She is a writer, editor, educator, and artist. After ten years of researching community, Davene is thrilled to be living her dream.

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Tuesday afternoon, bright winter sun is shining into my Earthaven home warming the entire cozy space. Strong solar rays are captured and stored as I sit and write. It is quiet today. The wind is still. I feel content as I contemplate the yoga class I will teach this afternoon in our Council Hall.

Teaching yoga at Earthaven is my way of cultivating Santosha, which is the yogic observance of contentment. Santosha is always available—it lives within us. We need only to observe it, give it space and it will grow. Showing up to teach my friends and neighbors yoga never fails to deliver me into a state of deep Santosha.

Today at 4 pm, the Council Hall will be warm for our yoga class with radiant floor heat beneath our mats and the sun streaming in the large windows all around us. Slight distractions are likely to occur in our large common space. They teach us to stay present to the sweet bubble of love we create around us as we move through our Sadhana (practice).

The class ranges from young, strong travelers passing through Earthaven to our dearly loved, long-living elders who have been doing yoga most of their lives. Some come to be challenged, some come to be soothed and relaxed.  We practice asanas (postures) for an hour, sink deeply into relaxation and end with an optional silent meditation.

I have taught yoga classes for 20 years in many settings. But teaching in my own community is so much sweeter.  Our Earthaven Sangha (community) has blended us over the years. Moving our bodies in unison through the sun salutations, breathing together through the interminably long silences, we melt our resistance and rigidity. We hold one another in the embrace of a higher consciousness. Our minds relax, our hearts open.  We come to know and love one another’s subtle energies.

As I walk through our woodland trails and arrive at yoga class, connecting is just a breath away………Santosha.

Marjorie Vestal is a public health professional, beekeeper, blackberry farmer, mother, and recent grandmother. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage where she cultivates woodland medicinal herbs and enjoys an ever-deepening connection to the natural world.

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Three years ago, Earthaven rented its first central office at the Trading Post. It served as our office, Internet café, information center and snack depot. This month we move the office to the Council Hall which helps us save money (rent to the Trading Post) and also centralizes our records in the same location as our meetings.

Suchi and Paul load the Taylor Water Stove from the outside.

Another fantastic change is our new Taylor Water Stove, which sits outside and is fed by wood stored nearby (no more messy ashes or hauling wood inside to deal with). We now bask in the warmth of radiant floor heat, which keeps the building at a constant temperature.

An intimate “lounge” outside the office invites us to enjoy videos, get online, or play a board game in our (ahem) free time.

Kimchi sits in our beautiful new office space.

But maybe the biggest change has been an addition onto the Council Hall which houses a flush guest toilet and a small kitchen complete with propane stove, plentiful hot water (the Taylor provides this too), and a place to wash and store dishes and other kitchen basics. It was a challenging project, as the builders had to adjoin it to the load-bearing straw bale wall and connect electricity and plumbing to a system laid down twelve years earlier. Yet Thanksgiving and Solstice, as well as other small parties have been easier and more joyous due to our indoor facilities.

Ohbeeb and Sue playing a game in our new lounge.

As a result of all these changes, not only has the office moved, but Yoga and Qigong now take place there as well as our weekly, Tuesday morning “Coffee and Trade.” Potlucks are more fun in the cozy Hall and our newly improved “one-room-serves-all” facility continues to be a great location for classes and celebrations of all kinds.

Suchi Lathrop, an Earthaven member, shares a household at the Tribal Condo. She gives tours, is on the visitors committee, created the Peace Garden, and has been a leader in social organizing. She started the Coffee and Trade event as well as the weekly happy hour, and has helped run the Trading Post for the last three years. Her current project is a workers’ cooperative building a code kitchen.

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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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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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