Steppin' Out

Well, I am still on the ledge and will be until at least after the general election.  That’s in November, in case you don’t follow that.

To show my involvement, here is my latest attempt to remain engaged in the political system.

I am, however, dangling one foot off the ledge.  I am now officially a member of an intentional community.  We just purchased 19 acres of forest on the southern edge of the Olympic National Forest and are in the process of watching the land before placing any structures on it.   Not that I intend to live there. 

I think I was the only one at the communities conference who did not intend to live in an intentional community.  This drew a question from one of the men I slept with (in Aurora Group House.)  He asked ‘Why I was putting money and energy into community when I wasn’t going to live there?’  Good question.  I thought about it and came back the next night with an analogy.  I don’t have children.  I have never wanted children.  I don’t really like to be around children.  But I feel that education is vital and will give my time and energy to support it.

The same with intentional communities.  I am learning more and more about how vital these communities are to our nation and the world.  They are models of co-operation.  They bring back a lot of skills that are in danger of being lost.  I want to foster these ideals and to spread the word of their existence.  It surprises me how many people haven’t heard of intentional communities.  Or if they have, they think of hippie communes from the 60’s.  While that may apply to some, it is by no means the whole.  Intentional communities are as varied as they are in number.  Each community defines itself as intentional.  They range from the Amish to the dreadlocked ones at Eastwind.  They range from young people looking for a home to elders sharing their retirement. 

We all live in community of one sort or another.  We have places we shop, we have families we visit and we may even have neighbors that we wave to.  But to take that a step further and say, “Yes, we intend to share our time, resources, meals and/or lives” is to form an intentional community.

Am I ready?  Not yet.  But I am glad I have that freedom to choose.