Letting Go: A Dancing Rabbit Update

If you are like me, you probably struggle with finding the time to accomplish everything that you’ve tasked yourself with. I don’t really understand why it’s so hard to let go of the things that I obviously won’t get to, or to simply accept that my notions of what I *think* I can get done are delusional and that I’m bound to trip over reality sooner or later.

Cob here, writing to you after a week of regular collisions between what I WANT to do, and the realities of what I CAN do. Many of these reality-checks were time-based, and the result of having too many different calendars to track. The family calendar was full of graduation-related events, rehearsal schedules, and chauffeuring responsibilities. The ever shifting work calendar ripples back and forth with the family calendar. And of course this is Dancing Rabbit, so there are the community calendars, vehicle scheduling calendars, and the visitor calendar, which includes a few workshops and cookshifts that I’m responsible for as well.

One of the most exciting developments of the week (for me at least) is Brent’s launch of a new scheduling and calendar platform for the community, that puts many of these calendars all in one place, making it all easier to track or view at a glance, and minimizing the inevitable double-booking of my time. Three cheers for better coordination!

And not a moment too soon! Even as the first Milkweed Mercantile seminar weekend (soap making and herbal tinctures and salves) came to a close, we welcomed another group of visitors for the next two weeks. While they’ve only just arrived, they’ve landed with such good energy and enthusiasm that it promises to be a fun and fulfilling session.

To some extent everyone has had to let go of their own schedule routine, concurrent with the end of public school, coordinated group home-schooling activities have ended, as well as regular weekly piano lessons in town. Whoever was responsible for equipment clean-up from this past spring’s maple sugaring efforts accepted help from Men’s group to get the job done, and the remaining members of our vehicle maintenance team, Rae and Bear, have welcomed Sharon and Benji to their work rotation.

The entire village is also gearing up to welcome the entire SCR-1 summer school for a field trip this Friday! The students and their teachers will get a series of educational mini-tours focusing on different aspects of the environment, get to view a school bus that has been converted into a home, participate in a scavenger hunt, pet the young goats, and eat hand-crafted pizza. (Don’t worry, there are hand-washing stations factored in there somewhere too.)

Some of my letting-go reality checks this past week were more physical in nature. Now I’m not claiming to be old just yet, but I’m clearly no spring chicken either. Hard physical labor can still feel very satisfying, but I clearly have to let go of the notion that I should do it all. Maybe it’s time to start hiring help for some things, like unloading 1,000 lbs of bulk food and produce when the semi-truck pulls up. Lacking a loading dock, this means moving everything at least twice, if not three times, before the incoming order is sorted and done.

Beyond these daily letting-go lessons, like “let’s just eat all the strawberries because I don’t have time to process them,” or “we need to buy lettuce from the neighbors because I haven’t planted mine yet,” and “I have to go to bed now, guess I’ll shower tomorrow,” my real challenges are more philosophical.

Letting go of things I can’t control is strangely harder than I would think. Watching my boys grow into adulthood and begin to pursue their own careers, while worrying about the viability of the very planet they will be inheriting from us. Watching fear win out over compassion out in the world, while witnessing the amazing care and compassion demonstrated by our Scotland County High School graduates this year. Feeling so very limited in my ability to have a meaningful impact on the world, toward the outcomes I hope to see.

There have been a few bright spots in the otherwise murky field of politics and what’s left of the environment. More and more folks are getting engaged in the political process and running for office. Regular folks with a wide variety of professional backgrounds, and I find this diversity encouraging. On the environmental side, Citizen’s Climate Lobby (a grassroots opposition to unbridled corporate lobbying) has been gaining ground, with more and more GOP legislators joining the climate caucus and expressing cautious interest in carbon fee and dividend legislation.

I’m looking forward to the many occasions for people to come together for learning and deepening their understanding of themselves and each other. Whether it’s folks coming for a visitor session or a public tour at Dancing Rabbit, or gathering to present a musical experience in Memphis, or sharing their perspectives and personal wisdom with our elected officials. I just can’t let go of my hope that we will somehow all manage to work together to avoid weaponized conflict, restore our natural environment, and to see and support one another as individual humans rather than races or nations.

The beauty and grace of the Creator, as expressed in the hummingbird visiting just outside my window helps me hold on to that prayer.

Is it time? To finally come see what you’ve been reading about? You can find out more about our visitor program here, or if a workshop is more to your liking, check out our 2017 programs here. Hope to see you soon!