Like my fellow 8.6 billion neighbors, I am a multifaceted human being, capable of being many things at once. Howdy reader, Kenny here. Follow me through a multifaceted review of my restful, stressful, and blessed past few weeks in the ecovillage.
In this moment, I am at rest. I am sitting at my kitchen table, staring out onto the picturesque world through the window of my earthen home. A still painting consisting of two colors: the brown of the trees, and the white of the snow and sky, occasionally animated by the soft gray of a rabbit or the brilliant red of a cardinal.
I intend to be outside a minimum of 30 minutes a day. As a stay-at-home parent of three and professional work-from-homer, it is not entirely uncommon for my “outside” time in an odd day to consist of only trips to the Common House to run laundry, fill water tanks, hold meetings, check mail, and migrate the Goslings (village shorthand for my three angels) to and from activities.
This is already more outside time than I used to get when doing the same thing in suburbia, but when experiencing the privilege of thriving in relative safety on nearly 300 acres of intermittently forested, mid-restoration prairie land, I intend to spend as much time in it as I can, negative wind chill or not.
Finding time outside has become easier as the days have steadily grown longer despite the sub-zero temperatures and ice, and I have been fortunate to enjoy it on walks with friends, bike rides alone, and brief excursions with the Goslings before it gets too frigid, and we need to turn tail and come back to the comfort of the wood stove and a cup of tea.
The memories of the crunch of week-old snow under my boots, the crisp chirps of winter birds, and the sting of the cold turning to the tingling in my cheeks as I warm myself by the fire, set me at rest.
In this moment, I am stressed. I sit with my computer, which I must use to interact with the world beyond my window. I chose to kick short form video from my media diet a few months ago, recognizing that, for me, the practice of allowing an algorithm, which is engineered to play on my anxieties, to flip through an infinite number of channels molded to be as engaging as possible was intensely damaging to my ideal daily rhythms. As such, I have been experiencing withdrawals, wishing I had the dopamine boost of just a few Reels, feeling the fear of missing out on updates from online friends, or the latest breaking news.
I am unsure which is more stressful, not reading the news, or reading the news. Things seem to be a bit…busy in the good ol’ US of A. From the latest AI scandal, to the most extreme winter storm the nation has seen in years, amid the latest reports of a rapidly warming world, to the escalation of federal force responsible for the slayings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good and six others in the first month of the year alone, engaging in news reading is a stressful pastime.
It can lead to a feeling of powerlessness, all these headlines, all this suffering; what can I do? Amongst it all, I am reminded of the words that Nancy Rogers shared with her scared son, and everyone’s neighbor, Fred Rogers: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.“ It took no time to find helpers amid the chaos and threats of ongoing federal violence in Minneapolis and the raging winter storm. Local businesses, churches, and neighbors offered warmth through shelter and deed. Advocates for AI regulation and climate advocacy in the wings of the scandals and climate reports to hopefully prevent the next one. Strangers supporting strangers. Most are nameless, and I remember that although in this moment I am stressed, it takes only my compassion to become one of the nameless helpers.
In this moment, I am blessed. As the Goslings return home from their Montessori-based school, greeting me with smiles, dirty lunchboxes, and excitement for their future, I feel blessed. Amid the rest I have found, and feel now, and the stress I have endured, and echoes in me now, I am in the company of a village full of possibilities, and neighbors to explore them with. Two years ago they were all strangers to me, and now I spend my days actively engaging in village improvement projects, from the explicit and named endeavors of the committee work I perform every week, to the overall improvement of contributing my open, honest, tolerant, and boundaried self to this community at every opportunity I am able.
Spending energy on the mutual aid collective, on village policymaking, and on advancing conversations about community betterment like the upcoming program season, accessibility projects, public utilities, or my hopeful future build, all fill me with joy to undertake, especially in concert with such unique, caring, and multifaceted neighbors.
We are approaching a number of events that I am blessed with the opportunity to attend. Our yearly community retreat is a few weeks away; six total days of events dedicated to conversations about the community as it is now and about the community we want it to be in the near future. Retreat is an official village event, but any villager can use our collective gathering spaces to host a gathering. This weekend we are invited to celebrate Burns Night, a celebration of Scottish history and poetry. The Goslings have spent the past few weeks getting their poems ready to orate. Coming off the past few weeks of a blissful dinosaur-themed birthday party for the village’s newest three-year-old, and a community conversation around a future pavilion build, I am feeling blessed to have such meaningful things to attend, and plentiful spaces in which to attend them.
Rest, stress, and blessings; they find me here like they have found me everywhere I have lived, but never have I felt so grounded in my reality, in purpose, and in community.
Kenny Dane is a member of the MARC committee, which oversees the various processes for people to apply for residency and membership in the Dancing Rabbit community.