It’s often said that there is nothing more consistent than change. Perspectives change as we get older, or encounter new challenges. Seasons change as we plant, garden, and harvest. Society and culture changes as new technologies are developed or made obsolete and as new generations move into leadership roles.
These transitions between what came before and the new reality are rarely smooth, often being met with fear, mistrust, and increasing resistance until some critical tipping point is reached, and the world moves on. Cob here, sharing the latest news and transitions from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage.
Our biggest collective event of the week was our annual Open House, held this past Saturday, when we invite the public for in-depth tours of the village and open a number of homes for viewing. This year visitors learned about our implementation of renewable energy solutions, how our shared infrastructure and local currency function, how our food co-ops work and thrive on a highly local food base, and received up-close looks at different natural building materials and styles. There was plenty for the kids too, including a Village Fair, yummy treats provided by our own Spiral Scouts, and a petting zoo. Donkey and the goats certainly loved the attention!
An exciting change for this year was the transition to a broader audience. In the past we’ve mostly been visited by our local neighbors and fellow residents in Scotland County. Now the circle of interest is widening, as the vast majority of this year’s attendees came from Iowa, Quincy, IL, and Kirksville and Columbia, MO. KHQA in Quincy even sent out a film crew early in the week, and aired a spot on the evening news on Thursday to tell their audience about our event.
On a more personal note, it’s the time of year when kids are shifting back to school time schedules, whether public or home schooled. That shift can ripple through to adult calendars and meeting time availability as well. For me this transition is sometimes jarring, as I get used to the new routine of waking to an alarm clock before sunrise.
It’s hard not to resent such rude awakenings, in part because it curtails my accustomed late-evening “free-time” too. I’m already dreading the wholly unnecessary daylight savings/standard time change coming in early November. Another transition that takes days or weeks to recover from. If anyone in a position to do something about this absurd legacy happens to be reading this, I imagine many people would be eternally grateful if you could make it stop or go away!
Against this backdrop of busyness and adjusting there were the usual array of arrivals, departures, and birthdays. For me, some of the most exciting were expeditions made by various Rabbits and our neighbors at Sandhill in support of the Native American communities working to preserve their ancestral and sacred lands, assert their sovereign rights under treaty, and halt the construction of the North Dakota access pipeline.
In my view the long-known and well-predicted demographic shifts away from a white and Christian majority in our country are not exactly being met with universal acceptance and good cheer. Unfortunately the transition from a position of inherent privilege to mere equality can *feel* like oppression, and trigger a lot of frustration and anger. It’s heartening to me to see so many working in support of human rights on so many fronts, whether it’s against corporate bullying and destruction in the case of the Dakota pipeline, or the corporate profiteering from mass incarceration, or willingness to call out hate speech and fear-mongering against Muslims, or the push-back against ridiculously light treatment of sexual attacks against women. The Christian tradition that I know and love supports human rights, and I pray that acting out of fear rather than love will become less and less mainstream.
A few of us Rabbits attended a town hall meeting a couple weeks ago, hosted by our local Congressman, Representative Sam Graves. It was a fascinating experience to hear the standard litany of political talking points in person, and to really feel the resistance to the transitions that will be required of us all over the coming years and decades in response to increased extreme weather events, increased risk of total crop failures, unexpected scarcity of other consumer goods, and the inevitable global shift toward renewable energy infrastructure.
Living in community at Dancing Rabbit has been extraordinarily helpful for me personally in shifting how I hear other people and articulate my own perspectives, and has improved my awareness of the underlying emotions at play in my own reactions. I’m starting to think of this process as a sort of “permaculture of the heart”. I’m not participating in the Permaculture Design Course being hosted here over the next few weeks, but I’ve enjoyed the stimulating and thought-provoking conversations with folks who have attended in the past, and am looking forward to more soon. This isn’t just happening at Dancing Rabbit either; interest in permaculture techniques is burgeoning everywhere.
Certainly one transition, moving toward embracing all perspectives and learning from them, is one that could help all the others go more smoothly.
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community and nonprofit outside Rutledge, in northeast Missouri, focused on demonstrating sustainable living possibilities. Find out more about us by visiting our website, reading our blog, or emailing us.