Judicious July Almanac
I know so many people desperate to make a difference now, to turn things around NOW. It’s hard to say, but it’s possible we’re part of a bucket brigade here; you got the bucket from somebody else and you are going to hand it on. Maybe we’ll only know the middle… With any luck, with any legacy, we make it possible for the next generation to go on with some kind of hope/confidence/courage/willingness. (Barbara Brown Taylor, in an Interview with Krista Tippet, On Being, ep. 1,100)
Dear Friends,
We’ve got issues at Common Ground that have defied resolution for many years despite steady labor towards, and investment in, this vision of an agrarian ecovillage. It’s as though we’re mirroring the Earth’s eliptical orbit around the Sun. Sometimes we’re so close! Other times seemingly so very far away from realizing a viable way to build a village; sustain a farm; grow a connected community of humans; engage with the land in a life-giving way. Well, we’ve bitten off a hefty piece of culture-shifting pie and worked for many years on multiple fronts. We are in the middle of…something compelling…and it remains to be seen what’s next; what’s possible; what an outworking that attracts sufficient people/energy/money to manifest might look like. How long it might take, and at what cost?
So we persist because this is worth doing and because it feeds us on so many levels, even if we don’t know…can’t predict…what’s going to happen in the end; what an outcome might be that is within our grasp, our lifetimes, our ability to be patient and tolerant; to be in a place of uncertainty among all the other uncertainties of life.
The honeybee speeds to the flower because she wants nectar and pollen to raise new bees and to put aside honey to ensure the survival of the hive. Does she know that in so doing, she makes it possible for the flower to fruit, and then to seed, and then to grow again? That the results of her efforts go far beyond anything she could possibly realize in one hungry moment? May it be so for Common Ground Ecovillage. But may our endeavors bear fruit that we may see and taste before too long and that we pass along as a legacy to future generations who will transform this creation beyond what we might imagine or dream is possible right now.
In the meantime…it’s SUMMER! Come to an event. Get to know another member and enrich each other’s lives. Join a Circle. Learn a useful skill. Make a contribution. Make a donation. This is all possible RIGHT NOW. It’s all laid out in the Almanac.
Don’t be a stranger. See you at Common Ground,
Hope, for the Governance & Training Circle
