Welcome to another missive, from Ted at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, where the paths are many, opinions are diverse, and we all do our best to get along.
In 2005 I wrote in Dancing Rabbit’s newsletter, the March Hare, about pathways through our village: “As an intern at DR in 2001, I was up on Skyhouse roof one day helping to lift their solar panels into position, and had an opportunity to look down at the paths created by daily foot traffic at Dancing Rabbit. One could see at a glance which parts of the village were most heavily traveled, which different points were well connected, and which paths only occasionally ventured upon. In a village such as this, where the physical and social infrastructure changes so significantly from year to year, watching the ways paths shift is a hobby that never grows old.”
I continue to be fascinated by the way the paths are continually developing to represent the presence of each villager, the places each of us walks regularly each day. The impact of our feet collectively increases as we get closer to buildings and other destinations that serve many people’s needs- there is the physical representation. And the imagery of pathways is a good metaphor for our continual efforts to achieve a consensus of opinion, often non-physical, that represents as many viewpoints as possible, and seeks solutions to any given problem that the greatest number of us can live with and support.
The more heavily traveled the path, the easier it is to build support for keeping it cleared in the face of inclement weather or other circumstances.
With multiple recent snowfalls, seemingly much in excess of our “normal” winter expectations, I’ve been preoccupied again with these path phenomena. We dig ourselves out after each snowfall, and one can see vividly the pattern we collectively create, so reminiscent in form of the circulatory pathways of the body.
Each person with energy to clear paths of snow is drawn first, naturally, to clear the paths they frequent most: you’ve got to shovel your way out your own front door before you can help anybody else. If you shovel all your personal essentials and you’re inspired to give more of your time and energy, perhaps you turn to those paths that serve the greatest number of your fellow villagers.
Similarly, in the realm of opinion, particularly something we are all trying to come to agreement about, our first job is to represent our own needs, followed by an attempt to locate on the spectrum of possible outcomes the way forward that will work for everyone.
This week we’re headed into our annual retreat, which we come together for each winter to consider the fundamentals of how we want to live together and how we want to work together to fulfill Dancing Rabbit’s mission of research, outreach, and education in the realm of sustainable living; to demonstrate one version of what is possible in a more ecologically harmonious future. Now that we have a village council and nonprofit staff, retreat will be a little more focused on the village side of things– what do we need to thrive as a village, both for the good of each individual and so that the nonprofit has something motivational to demonstrate to the wider culture?
I hope you’ve heard about Validation Day by reading our column in previous years, but if you haven’t, the idea is to celebrate a day that is less about whether you happen to be in a romantic relationship at the moment and more about taking time to let each person you live with know some of the ways you appreciate them. Despite how closely we live with one another, there are surprisingly few designated opportunities to candidly tell our friends and acquaintances the many ways in which we value them.
For us this has grown into an event where cards are created for each member of the community, and then kept in a box in the common building where each of us can take a little time in the week or two preceding to pull out cards and write each other short messages of appreciation.
This year there were cards (many of them works of art on their own) for nearly every member of Dancing Rabbit, Sandhill Farm, Red Earth Farms, and many friends in the town of Rutledge as well. Writing meaningfully in each of 75+ cards took me several hours over the course of a few days, but felt really good, especially as I sat alongside various other community members who were doing the same. The finale came Friday evening, when a few volunteers read snippets from each card while the room-full of people gathered for community supper tried to guess whose card was being read from in each case. Later we transitioned to a dance party organized by Katherine, and overall everybody I spoke with really enjoyed the day.
There tend to be clusterings of birthdays certain times of year here, and we’re in the middle of one now. Friday’s potluck dinner invited lasagna and cake-themed contributions for Eric’s birthday. I’m eating gluten-free these days, and was excited to have two lasagna choices, including one with homemade noodles. Sara and I have back-to-back birthdays next week, and plan to ask for a pizza potluck.
Mae celebrated her birthday Saturday. As someone with animals and other outdoor needs to tend daily, no matter the weather, Mae was fed up with snow, and decided to go sledding in an effort to shift her mood and try to enjoy it instead. Enjoy it we did! Vista de la Moo (the best local sledding hill, on neighbors’ land across our little valley) had both good base from previous accumulations and two snowfalls’ worth of fluffy fresh powder. Once you gained enough speed to plane atop the powder, it felt like flying. On my best run, I gathered enough speed that I crossed the flats at the bottom of the hill, crashed down through the tall weeds at the creek margin, over the creek bed, and up the other side. Perfect run, in my book.
With temperatures in the 50s predicted this week, the part of my brain attuned to seed-planting and visions of sunny, green mornings in the garden is emerging from hibernation and sniffing the air tentatively. Our hens say spring is coming– we had 10 eggs yesterday. I’m trying to steel myself for more winter while believing this arctic passage will end some day. At least I’ll have a couple warmer days to try and catch up on firewood.
Stay warm and think green, friends!
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community and nonprofit outside Rutledge, in northeast Missouri, focused on demonstrating sustainable living possibilities. While we dream of spring, when tours will begin again, you can find out more about us by visiting our website, reading our blog, or emailing us.