Coagulating the Object - Reclaiming the "Trash" and creating the Spaceship
posted by Joe Moore | September 9, 2010
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IcerocketDriving my car home from work, as I do most days, I got lost and decided to take the slow road home. A few minutes into my ride I found a shut down farm or garden center with 4 to 6 abandoned green houses and was entranced. These could easily be repaired to working condition with just a little effort. The spot was made even nicer by the fact that it has at least 1/8 mile of frontage on a major river with direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.
Reclaiming property is something that many people have done successfully over the Aeons, and why not now. Transition Towns suggests that reclaiming abandoned greenhouses and lots as a great way to increase resilience. It leverages existing energy and resource investments before they are unusable. Working with the owner or town to create some sort of land lease agreement could provide someone with a great place to farm or land for a shared community garden. A successful farmer I am aware of leases a huge farm (at least 20 acres), a house, and a barn in Massachusetts for $6000 a year. Imagine the possibilities of doing something like this with a few friends or fellow evolvers?
My mind has a tendency to run wild, so with this blessing I thought of (as I frequently do) founding a fantastic small magical yogic shamanic permaculture dream community at this spot... what else... permaculture anything here would make me overflow with optimism for the future. After reading a bunch about permaculture, practicing traditional gardening this year, attending & coordinating a transition town training this year, I'm thinking of the steps required to move forward.
A few miles down the road from this place, I noticed 5 or 6 small farm stands in front of fields that I had no idea existed. These people apparently are living their dream and went for it (This is what they call the greenhorn movement I think.). All this just a few miles from home, and I didn't know?
I have a personal goal of starting a permaculture community in the next couple years, and my involvement in Evolver Boston has allowed me to meet a bunch of people who have similar sympathies. For this I am grateful. Neopagans abound in many flavors, and I love connecting with them. This shared vision of total transformation, increasing and deepening connections, and creating the new/archaic revival is here at and with Evolver.
In boldness lies Genius. - Goethe
Comments
I have a hard time with
— Sep 09, 2010
I have a hard time with blogging here as I feel it all has been said before. The same notions I express, were expressed in a thread on a ninja commune recently, which I love. Not too much above seems like something new or interesting. Homesteading has been done forever. There is a tendency for us, myself included to reinforce our memes. I suppose as long as we are flexible with them, and we have our heart aligned with what we believe in, this is fine, but feels awkward now and again, especially here.
Looking forward to getting things rolling towards expansion.
As I see it real value here is to connect with and support others, and to share the genuinely new when it shows itself to us.
thought....
— Sep 09, 2010
I do have to take some of this back. There is a lot of rich and valuable satire, essays and verse being put out here. Maybe I'm projecting my lack of will in developing a similar piece? For what its worth, I love Evolver and RS.
I understand how you feel,
— Sep 11, 2010
I understand how you feel, sometimes I have the same impression, of repetition, but then a great discution emerges, with a great deal of new ideas, still babys, appearing and I fall in love with evolver all over again.
Actually I have the same "problem" with permaculture, I find it great and very clever, but I can't engage because it feels like I'm going through the same subjects I've been plunging on the past 4 years and I wish for new, then I see what it has been doing for the minds of my fellow compatriots and I love it all over again...
Soon things will start to get into action and it will all fall into place (I hope!).
Hi Ana, Yes, seems like
— Sep 13, 2010
Hi Ana, Yes, seems like circles and circles, but they are productive, and it does seem to make other brothers and sisters burn brighter.
The close heart to heart connection that you get from really opening and expressing with some one, or with a group really are the priceless aspects of evolver. It is a group process, not something we are along with.
Thanks for listening. :O)
I'm sorry I missed commenting on this post
— Sep 13, 2010
Sometimes they just seem to fly at a fast and furious pace. I love the energy of what you are saying here. This is exactly what I see nearing the horizon. Soon evolver will be bringing it down to the ground, so to speak. In my own community there's been a lot of activity under the radar for the past year. I keep meeting the most exciting and wonderful people and learning about even more things that have been going on all along. A sense of interconnected and cooperative support is emerging in the community of folks who keep bumping into each other. I think the party is just getting started!
Thanks for the comment
— Sep 13, 2010
Thanks for the comment River. I agree. It seems as though there is a high energy, Aquarian & Airy tendency that Evolvers tend to have. Yes, I also have this as Aquarius is my Acsendent.
Your city, Bloomington has an incredible thing happening. The Peak Oil report on your city was hugely impressive, and the Permaculture awareness, or eco awareness (at least in print)... I'm in awe.
The party is just starting.. and I feel it with the huge numbers of turned on folks I keep meeting. Keeping the party rolling by having new parties, doing new and novel things, letting the light shine... these are things I plan to continue doing.
The Urban Homesteaders League in Boston is really doing great work in the city, and I'm very excited to network further with them.
Thanks again River.
Hi guys!
— Sep 14, 2010
I'll take this as an oportunity to expess to you both my present confusion...
I've been engaged in communities the past 4 years, not all farms, and I've been "permaculturing" for at least 3 . Right now I'm evaluating the past years, and the community live overall. I really don't now anymore if it is the best way, for me, anyhow.
I couln'd return to city life, but I not sure about communitary life. I feel we are not prepared for it yeat. We haven't changed our inner self enough for that. I have made a lot of efford in changing my ways, into living with others in the most harmonious way, trying always to comunicate my feelings, caring for others feelings, listenning and adjusting myself. It's a lot of work, it's a "full time job". But I'm a bit overcamed by frustation from the fact that I was basecly the only one doing so. All my fellows had a lot of beatifull ideas but not that much efford put into making them real.
So, now, I feel that I can't engage in community life anymore, I see it more as having good neiborws, each one with their own space, in cooperation. But that seems even harder to acomplish in the practical world!
I feel a bit lost...
You have an immense amount
— Sep 14, 2010
You have an immense amount to share with us! It looks like you have been trying to live the dream, but finding a few big walls to living that way. I'm not sure what to offer other than my own experience.
A while back I had a huge shift while on a retreat, and came back floating on a cloud, living in a way that I picture as an ideal life. Treating everyone with respect, huge amounts of patience, no anger, no fear, and it seemed like something just a little shy of "grace". This is gone now. I exist largely like I was before. Fear, anxiety, a few unhealthy habits, and not treating others as well.
What I have concluded from this is that unless I personally have a daily spiritual practice, I fall back to where I am currently. Excuses that all seem to have a paper mache quality get in the way of me accomplishing what I value most. Strange, but true.
You seem to be saying that you are living true to your ideals in a sense, but the people who you live with communally aren't trying to match the spiritual ideals you share on the surface. Do you think they would change if you included some kind of encounter workshops or group process workshops? Is it an intentional community, or a plain jane commune? Do you think you would have better luck at a different commune, co-housing or eco village?
What are your thoughts on Evolver as a place to meet new commune buddies? Are there evolver spores near you?
I tend to think similar things would come up in an evolvery themed commune, and maybe because we are opinionated folks, we would have more trouble keeping together. Building resilience into these things is key, and changes will happen. Setting a philosophy and mission statemente seem to be paramount to starting something new.
:)
— Sep 15, 2010
Look's like I have a lot to share indeed...
4 years ago I had a short of revelation myself and after that I believed that self-sufficient communities were the solution to the worlds problems! Places of respect, love and cooperation, wile caring for the earth. So I went to live in a communitary place in Belgium, it was not a farm, and it's goal was cultural. Not exactly what I was aiming for, but I stayded for a year, learning about communitary life. It was very disapointing, human wise.
I didn't give up on my dream and went on to grow my veggies alone, back in Portugal, for another year.
Them the oportunity to make my dreams real came, with a few friends, at a beautifull but very isolated place in the mountains. This was aiming for self-sufficiency, there was no spiritual goal, although all of us had some kind of spiritual believes. Maybe that was the problem, I too, have found that spiritual progress needs to be nurtured everyday, if not, it is easy to go back to old habits.
In the end it didn't work out among us and each went separed ways. I'm currently at my father's farm and wandering what my next move should be...
Evolver could be a good place to meet people like- and goal- minded, but challenges will always be there. Human interactions are "mined" with old habits and efford is needed to overcame them, but possible.
With one of my friends on the community we eventually, after a great deal of energy waste, managed to have an honest, loving, suportive friendship. We went separeted ways because we had different objectives in life, and no hard feeling were born from that. We just acknowledge that time had come for something new.
I believe the channenge now is in finding the right people to form a community.
But you can read my comment here about what I believe are the main challenges on building a community:
http://www.evolver.net/user/giacomo/blog/so_why_dont_we_all_just_make_mo...
As for me, it will be a bit hard to find local evolvers, since I believe I'm the only portuguese person on this site!
I read your post on the
— Sep 15, 2010
I read your post on the other thread a while back and it was that post and your comment that got me interested in posting here again. Ross Barton, near the bottom of the comments makes a good point about being in the world, vs fully dropping out.
My aim would be less about dropping out of the world and more about being
more fully engaged in it. The practice of retreat, I think is important. For a few weeks or a few months at a time, I think this would be great for me. Others may feel differently. Actions such as publishing, promulgation, practice, privacy, and publicity do seem to be part of what we are doing here at Evolver, and have been part of many previously successful religions and spiritual movements.
Giacomo's post had a theme of dropping out and creating a new isolated spiritual cauldron, where we create a new hybrid of spiritual warrior. The intention would need to be set prior to engagement with the thing that this was the goal, and we have X set of taboos, and Y goals. The books exist for us to develop something new without training from a master, but purely with practice, ceremony, and sober reflection. This I think was what Giacomo was getting at.
We have the technology, why aren't we doing it.
Ana, Your points on that comment thread brought up some things I had heard discussed before. Though not a permaculture, tantric, psychedelic commune, the way Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (magician, musician and artist) used to live was quite interesting. It was communal living, and the communes were networked, and they all did group work and private work. In the interview I'll link to here, it sounds like they are living a truly magical and progressive lifestyle. If anyone can get through it, I'd love to hear their thoughts on the interview. http://traffic.libsyn.com/wuelf2000/Thelema_Now_Genesis_P_Orridge.mp3
Sorry for my delayed anwser,
— Sep 20, 2010
Sorry for my delayed anwser, Joe. I'm travelling atm, so I haven't had time to write much.
Yes, there are plenty of things to be considered when one start dwelling on community living and I guess there are plenty of good solutions out there and new one's to be found. It all comes to people in the end.
What I mean is that the major setback is finding the right people to do it with. In all my discutions about the subject with others that have engaged in that kind of project we always end up with that: "it's a question of finding the right people!".
To some an intentional community with most of duties shared would be suitable, for other privacy and just a few shared things is best. Some perfer isolation, others stay in the center of big towns!
I've been doing a lot of thinking the past few days, not only because of this discution but also because same new projects are being born on my area.
I haven't given up on community live just yet, although my way of looking at it has changed. For now I would perfer an option were I can have a lot of independency from the group, some sort of cooperative, instead of a fully engaged group with most things being common.
I used to believe that would lead to individualism, but after experiencing that coese kind of life, I feel that a lot of space is needed to prevent fighting, etc.
Because finding the RIGHT people for the job could, maybe, take a live time to acomplish...
By the way, Sofadog has a point there too. I often meet people that complain about their lives, that look fo new solutions, but most are almost unable to move an inch into action. Commiting to a project seems to be a serious challenge for us. Especially consciente people that are looking seriously for new ways of living. Seems a bit like a paradox, doesn't it?
I guess that living in the now is a bit contrary to commitement!!
Ana, Sorry for my delayed
— Sep 24, 2010
Ana, Sorry for my delayed response. I've been all over the map.
I don't really want to share the details, but it looks like all sorts of amazing things happened as soon as I wrote this blog and responded to comments here. Very strange, but hugely awesome changes are coming my way on a ton of different levels :o) I'll be posting more soon about it I am sure.
Peace all, and thanks for the contributions to my thinking on the subject.
Find the others!
