For many, these choices are simple and there is not much negotiation involved. A simpler life and things within arm's reach goes a lot farther in the mind than living.
We are writing this blog and proceeding this way because when we first started the idea, it was one person with the idea and the thought that a group of other people with similar thoughts could all come together to live in an intentional community and everything would be just fabulous!
Needless to say, that was not the case. People came into it with their own prejudices and baggage. People began to try to control it and even tear it apart and a desire to get on television or in the paper grew to the point where it nearly tore the entire thing to pieces...nearly.
A core group of trusted individuals held together learned about ourselves first, then each other and then how we could come together to solve these issues, build our homes and then build a community...a city in the woods.
I am writing this today because I cannot tell you how many people come to me and others in the group and asked if they can "stop by and check it out". At first, we were obliged to do so and we even offered tours but no one wanted a tour. People just wanted to swing by. At our previous property this led to people showing up and attempting to camp on the property which led to nuisance events, illegal hunting, and even some property damage and theft. I visited a town amongst the redwoods out in California that was even more secretive than we are and they say they are because it was not unusual to find beer cans and trampled flowers from people wanting to take pictures.
There are seven of us now (soon to be eight as Carol enters her second trimester and prepares to bring a baby into the world) and we started out with nearly 20 with a few (literally) hundred more wanting to stop by or people wanting us to audition for shows and more. We had no interest in that so we have gotten as far off the grid as possible, yet still able to do our jobs and create.
We want you to be able to do the same, but, and we are sorry, not at the expense of our lives as we choose them, so we are going to take turns tapping away at this blog, talking about the things that we are doing and how we are doing them.
We make no claims to have all the answers, just what we have learned works for us. It is one thing to be born into a family, but quite another to try to construct one of your own! We will acknowledge that once we stepped away from the world, things got a lot easier. It became a lot easier to do it once we stopped asking for permission or dealing with the politics and the unsubstantiated gossip.
We have emerged and are ready to write this now because we are getting settled in and going about our daily business and sometimes scattering ourselves to pay the bills on our small homes and our modest land. Our desire it to see communities like this pop up all over the place and they are slowly but surely beginning to dot the landscape.
The first thing you want to do is form the foundation and that means laying the cornerstone a
nd that cornerstone has to be stable. So our first piece of advice is to know yourself. Know your heart and why you are doing this. Know what you are willing to do. Know how far you are willing to go and then find others who feel the same and are willing to go that distance along with you.
Thanks! Judy, Carol, Mel, Jason, George, Alex, Val, and Ceres
Follow along and we will tell you the next step!
If you have a question or a comment, you can find us on facebook here City in the Woods
