Misery Loves Company, or Great Expectorations

Well, since our arrival home last Saturday from our whirlwind (and somewhat stressful) trip to the East Coast, Mary and I have been holed up in our casita, nursing monster viral illnesses that have pretty much laid us flat. Although I became ill just three days into our trip, Mary did not show signs of illness until our last day in New England, the day after she had her memorable post-Thanksgiving emergency root canal.

Calling in sick to work for the entire week and canceling all appointments except for mutual sessions with our chiropractor, we basically entered a state of collective suspended animation, spending entire days in our casita, leaving only for several minutes at a time to give Tina brief walks. (Actually, we were generally so sick that we were sometimes unable to walk Tina, so we chose to just let her out on her own, except for nighttime when the coyotes are prowling the nearby river bed, hungry for a sweet canine or feline morsel.)

On Monday evening, too sick to make it to community dinner (and unwilling to infect others with our illness), a neighbor delivered our dinner to us when we requested that someone do so, and we gratefully slurped on homemade soup. Meanwhile, someone has brought us chicken soup, a neighbor is loaning us a vaporizer/humidifier, someone else called from the co-op to see if we need anything, and others have also checked in to see how we are and what we need.

To this day, our coughs continue (although Mary’s is improving), and as I posted on Twitter a few days ago, the used tissues have piled up like so much snotty snow. And to add insult to injury, I believe I have suffered a hairline rib fracture from the force of my persistent cough. Oy.

Illness notwithstanding, yesterday a momentous day dawned, and the 18-wheeler on which we had packed all of our worldly possessions not one week ago in Amherst, Massachusetts arrived to our new storage unit here in Santa Fe. Rallying our strength and meeting up with our excellent hired help (a sweet father-and-son team), we unloaded the truck, carefully packed the storage unit, and brought selected furniture and beloved objects to our casita. Having lived with our clothes in cardboard boxes for the last seven months (and crammed into small spaces in the RV for nine months before that), each of us having a dresser seems like an unheard of luxury, and we will continue to discover small treasures and beloved belongings as we slowly comb through the contents of our storage unit.

So, you may ask, dear Reader, why have the intrepid travelers and self-proclaimed “nomadic communitarians” decided to bring all of their worldly goods to the West? Are they thinking about remaining in Santa Fe? What about the continued search for community and the optimal climate for living?

What we have decided is that, except for friends and family who we love dearly, our ties to the East Coast have indeed weakened, and we have decided to stay in the West for the foreseeable future. Although Santa Fe still holds our attention and we are happy at The Commons on the Alameda, this area is not feeling like our “forever home”, and other horizons will eventually beckon once the time to move on has presented itself. Until then, there is still much to explore and experience here in Northern New Mexico, and we are presently traveling while rooted in one place (something that Tina is especially thrilled about!).

So, as the used tissues continue to pile up and gallons of tea with honey are imbibed (with the odd shot of sherry or port wine for reasons of pure constitutional fortification, of course), we feel our mutual suffering coming to an end, and our (admittedly somewhat cozy) self-imposed isolation will also cease.

It’s been a long two weeks, replete with a whirlwind trip to the other coast, acute illness, reuniting with our life’s possessions, and the reminder that our bodies need important rest and recuperation when under duress. Yes, Misery loves Company (guess which one of us is Misery and which one is Company!), and we know this time of companionable misery and great expectorations will remain a poignant memory long after the trash is taken out and the surfaces summarily disinfected.

We are wishing everyone out there in blogland a most happy, healthy and joyous holiday season, and we send you all our love, respect and gratitude. 

Reflections by Keith at One Year

Exactly one year ago today---on October 30th, 2009---we woke up in our rig after spending the night in our friend David's driveway, said goodbye and began a journey whose length and breadth we could not predict. Having sold our house and most of our things, quit our jobs, and made the radical decision to hit the open road in search of intentional community and (excellent) adventure, we left our beloved New England for points unknown.

Not several weeks after our departure, our aforementioned friend David took his own life, and an unplanned return to Massachusetts for his funeral threw a temporary wrench into our travels---and our hearts---as we processed the grief and loss that his passing engendered.

Recovering from David's sudden and unexpected death, we continued our descent down the East Coast, visiting friends, family, and intentional communities whose missions or values spoke to us.

For me, this East Coast sojourn was like a long goodbye after 45 years of living along the Atlantic, and my heart continued to open to the West once we took that right-hand turn in northern Florida. We meandered through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and there were BBQ's, communities, serendipitous meetings, Laughter Yoga, camping adventures, and all sorts of events along the way.

It was a wild ride, and I must honestly share that even though we were very road weary and ready for a break once we returned to New Mexico following our visit to the Grand Canyon for Mothers' Day weekend, the transition to a place-based life was indeed difficult for me. After so many miles and so much forward momentum, our screeching halt in Santa Fe---although necessary on many fronts---gave me pause as well as a short-term bout of depression.

Now, after five months living at The Commons on the Alameda Cohousing Community and making the most of life in Santa Fe, I see clearly how we all needed this break, and that living only 90 miles from our beloved son and daughter-in-law is sweet and lovely.

We left Western Massachusetts in search of community, with a deep desire for a sense of belonging and sustainable living. Here at The Commons we have fulfilled that longing, and we have immersed ourselves headlong into the life of the community, making the most of our time. We honestly have no idea how long we will stay at The Commons or in Santa Fe, and while we would like to find our "forever home", I'm not convinced that that concept truly applies to us.

One year ago, we took a giant leap of faith into the void, with eight wheels between us and the road that opened up before and beneath us. That road has treated us well, and even though we're now in one place (for however long it lasts), my "traveler's mind" is active, intact, and still brimming with curiosity. Although I love many things about where we are and who we're with, I still feel like I'm traveling, and those 10,000 miles have not really assuaged my itch to further explore the world around us.

There's no predicting where we'll be in another year, but I have no doubt that it will be rich with community, adventure, beauty, and possibility.

The Joys of Community Living

When we set out on our journey on October 30th of last year, our intention was to visit sustainable and intentional communities around the country and find one where we might be able to create either a short-term or long-term life for ourselves and Tina.

Now that we're here at The Commons on the Alameda, we are dedicating ourselves to life in this community for however long our stay turns out to be, which will be at least until the end of March. Reluctant to make a long-term commitment, renting a little studio "casita" gives us a cozy little home, a place to rest our heads, and 79 other people with whom we have frequent opportunities to interact.

The Commons is a cohousing community, so it is like an intentional neighborhood that was designed by the original families to be a safe pedestrian village wherein children and adults could live a community oriented life while maintaining a large degree of personal autonomy. And to this end, The Commons has been wildly successful.

Socially, we are lucky to have two opportunities for inexpensive community meals twice per week, and these meals provide us with the chance to break bread with neighbors over homemade food, and it is a weekly ritual that many of us are loathe to miss. Some residents are very popular chefs, so when certain people are on the schedule to cook dinner, you can be sure that the tables will be packed! So, for anywhere from $4 to $7 each per meal, we feast with our neighbors and can even take home inexpensive leftovers for the next day if the food really strikes our fancy.

While organized parties are few and far between (at least since we moved in), we did recently celebrate the annual harvest celebration here at The Commons, and participating in that 19th annual party was a treat. Also, various Commoners frequently host movie nights, sing-alongs, and other gatherings that bring some of us together. (Tonight, a group of us watched "Vitus", a sweet Swiss film that we heartily recommend).

Living in community also gives us the wherewithal to make our needs known and have them fulfilled without participating in the conspicuous consumption that makes American life so expensive and unsustainable. When we need to borrow a tool or a cooking implement, we simply send out an email or stop by the community kitchen or tool shed to see if there's one we can borrow. When I had two flat tires last week and had to send my car to the garage, one email resulted in five offers of cars to borrow so I could get to work. And if one of us was to fall ill or we were to need to community support in a pinch, we have no doubt that it would come through with little effort on our part, and that is a comforting thought.

As far as community processes, we both make time to attend various meetings here at The Commons, including the monthly business meeting, community meeting, parents meeting, and other important gatherings. When we arrived, we immediately saw that the Care and Concern Committee (with only one member) was in need of energy, so we both joined and have initiated a monthly "Heart Circle" where Commoners can come and be heard in a space devoid of judgment, feedback, or problem-solving.

When it comes to kids, that is a very fun aspect of life here. With Mary doing childcare two afternoons each week, many of the kids now see our casita as a place to come for fun and positive adult interaction, and Mary has smartly set up a shelf at kids' eye level that is covered with various toys and playthings. So, various Commons kids come and go from our casita throughout the week, and Mary has especially put a great deal of energy into creating sweet relationships with many of the children here.

Akin to kids, dogs at The Commons are another source of joy, and we have several canine friends with whom we share a special bond. There are a few who wander at will (and sometimes make their way into our casita in search of treats), and then there are others who we run into as we wander the community.

Yes, life in community offers opportunities for socialization, time with children and dogs, and the ability to dig into community life, contribute in meaningful ways, and enjoy not living in isolation in some anonymous neighborhood where no one seems to know one another.

I can say all of this and also simultaneously acknowledge that community life is not perfect. No community is not without its dysfunctions, personality clashes, and cumbersome processes, but in the larger scheme of things, we feel most at home and comfortable when living in an environment wherein some semblance of shared living is involved. It is more sustainable, more ecological, and yields a sense of connectedness and belonging that living in that isolated outside society can often lack.

The Commons may not be our forever home, and we may eventually move on for other pastures, but for now it's a comfortable place to be, and we're settling in for a New Mexican winter here in the high desert, safe in the folds of community living.

Images From the Sunflower River Harvest Festival

This past Monday, we eagerly attended the Sunflower River Community Harvest Festival. Sunflower River is an impressive and land-centered intentional community in south Albuquerque that we visited last March, making fast friends with the stewards of this special place. The Harvest Festival was very special, and we're happy to have been invited to such a wonderful event.

A pie contest made everyone's taste buds quite happy.....

Kids and dogs abounded....

And many members of the wider Albuquerque pagan community were there.....

And live music in the shade of the orchard was one of the highlights of the day....

Sunflower River is a place where the people live and love with integrity and a deep connection to the land and all it provides. The people of Sunflower hold a special place in our hearts, and we thank them for being our friends and fellow communitarians.

Las Vegas, Hummingbird and Beyond.....

Greetings! We've been spending the Memorial Day weekend here in Las Vegas, New Mexico with our dear friends the Ruge Family. Some readers may remember that we spent more than a week on the Ruge Ranch in March, taking care of the horses and dog while this charming family of four went skiing. Their kindness is endless, and being here after winter has loosened its grip and the warmth of spring has arrived is blissful. Our son Rene and daughter-in-law Bevin came along for an overnight, and the Memorial Day feasting on Saturday was legendary. (And Mary even got to ride a horse completely on her own!)

On our way to the Ruge Ranch, the four of us stopped at the Montezuma Hot Springs just outside of Las Vegas. These hot springs are basically the ruins of a former resort which is now kept up by volunteers and is across the road from Armand Hammer's United World College. Rene and I managed to swim in the icy river and then dip ourselves into the hottest spring which is approximately 113 degrees Fahrenheit.....not for the faint of heart! Mary later caved and did the same but only after immersion in the the other springs which were a more balmy 105 or so. It was a great way to relax after the long drive from Taos over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. 

Yesterday, we borrowed our hosts' Prius and drove an hour north to Hummingbird Ranch, an intentional community that we visited over the winter when we passed through northern New Mexico the last time. Our return to Hummingbird had the specific purpose of joining in the celebrations as our friends Ryan and Mandy ended their two-year and six-thousand mile bicycle trip around the country in search of an intentional community to call home. (Sound somewhat familiar?) 

After visiting 100 communities, Mandy and Ryan have decided to live at Hummingbird, and their arrival was a festive event replete with a film crew (they are making a movie about their journey), music, costumes, and a gaggle of Hummingbird residents and visitors who created a homecoming unlike any other. The intrepid cyclists and communitarians had no idea that such a party was planned, and they arrived with tears of joy, getting off of their bikes to kiss the ground and receive a plethora of hugs. 

We met Ryan and Mandy when they visited the Sirius Community in Shutesbury, Massachusetts last September, and their quest for community inspired us as we prepared for our own journey. They have been instrumental in our adventure by sharing connections and contacts at key communities, and we are so thrilled that we will be relatively nearby for at least the next few months. We do not believe it's a coincidence that we've all chosen intentional communities here in northern New Mexico, and the intertwining of our journeys is a sweet synchronicity.

Today, our young friend Cassidy took us on our first official bird-watching adventure at the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge. We "only" observed about 30 species of birds (chicken-feed according to Cassidy) but we were happy to play with scopes and binoculars while taking in the view and learning from our highly intelligent guide.

Tomorrow, we will, alas, leave the Ruge Ranch and complete our own journey (or at least this portion of it) as we arrive to The Commons on the Alameda. While our arrival will be much more low-key and under the radar, we have no doubt that the folks at The Commons will be as kind and welcoming as they were when we passed through during five snowy days this past winter. There will be much to reflect on once we've landed and unpacked our humble belongings into a home that has no wheels. We will, no doubt, share some of that joyous and perhaps challenging process with you. Meanwhile, Tina looks forward to it the most and we will be sure to honor her loyal companionship with a special blog featuring  the old gal, traveler extraordinaire. Now, off to tell her the good news!

MCS and the Search for a Safe Community

In honor of MCS Awareness Month, we are posting this co-written article in order to share more deeply regarding one of the most significant reasons that we undertook our current journey around the country. Because we both live with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), finding a safe place to call home is paramount to us, and those who have MCS understand what it's like to live like a "canary in the coal mine" in a world saturated with substances that undermine our health and impair our ability to function effectively.

With recent reports showing that even ADHD may be linked to pesticide use, there is a crucial necessity for us to be more public about our MCS, our search for safe housing, and the need for greater awareness about the effects of chemicals, pesticides, and manufactured fragrances on the health of humans and the environment. That said, many hospitals and other health care facilities are now becoming fragrance-free in an effort to support the health of patients, thus awareness is indeed growing about this important public (and personal) health issue.

We offer this article as a missive of support and hope to other canaries, as well as a plea to those without MCS---especially intentional communities---to more deeply understand our plight.

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When it comes to finding safe housing, everyone with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) will agree that this is one of the most daunting challenges of living with this most highly inconvenient and disheartening medical condition.

After living in New England for 20 years and becoming chemically injured in the process (most likely due to hidden mold in our home), it was no longer safe for us to live in our beloved neighborhood or continue to work in our meaningful jobs.

Our lovely arboreal homeowners’ association provided what at first appeared to be a healthy sanctuary for our family of three, but our blissful existence was often impeded by the imposition of a variety of common household toxins, including the fumes of lighter fluid, charcoal, dryer sheets, and lawnmower and vehicle exhaust. Lying in hammocks or eating home-cooked meals on our custom-made screened-in porch, we were often driven indoors by clouds of the aforementioned toxins filtering through the forest and onto our property.

When exposed to various chemicals and environmental toxins, we each experience a similar yet somewhat different constellation of symptoms, including headache, confusion, sore throat, irritability, asthma, hives, joint pain, muscle pain, and burning eyes. When mold was discovered in our attic after our house was put on the market, the potential culprit of our mutual MCS only added to our intense desire and need for a safe refuge.

In our workplaces which had fragrance-free policies, we were both exposed to environmental insults that exacerbated our condition and underscored the need to radically change our lives. Policies are virtually ineffective without enforcement, often driving wedges between people of varying cultures and levels of acceptance, support and awareness. The commitment to educating others can be exhausting, and workplace exposures impair job performance and strain professional relationships. Thus, we canaries often find ourselves frequently leaving otherwise satisfying and meaningful jobs in order to preserve our health and sanity.

Having lived in an intentional community early in our relationship, we decided that ecologically-minded intentional communities with a focus and commitment to sustainability would offer the greatest potential for finding a safe home. We hoped that this form of community would use earth-friendly, biodegradable and non-toxic products in keeping with that vision of sustainable living, and provide for us a safe place to live our lives in peace and health.

Hitting the proverbial road in a 29-foot mobile home, we began to scour the country for an intentional community or eco-village that offered an opportunity for healthy living. Traversing the East Coast, Deep South, Gulf Coast and Southwestern United States, we visited over two-dozen intentional communities in more than twenty states over the course of seven months.

Many of these communities profess to live close to the earth by using sustainable building and permaculture techniques, renewable energy sources, organic gardening, and other well-meaning practices. In our naivete, we did indeed assume that “sustainable living” would include the use of earth-friendly and non-toxic products, but we’ve sadly found that many such communities simply reach for the cheapest common denominator, with Tide, Bounce, Palmolive, Cascade and other products being the easy mainstream fix.

Our disappointment and disillusionment were great when many visits to such communities revealed that people were often unwilling to “walk the talk” when it came to using safe and healthy products. As to the issue of being fragrance-free and MCS-friendly, most communities appeared oblivious at best, much to our dismay.

Earthaven Ecovillage in Asheville, North Carolina, Sunflower River Community in Albuquerque, New Mexico and The Commons on the Alameda Cohousing Community in Santa Fe, New Mexico are the three communities that we have found in our travels to best embody earth-friendliness and consideration for those living with MCS.

While people at Earthaven do indeed burn a great deal of wood for winter heat and state that they are not well-equipped to have people with severe MCS join them, many of the residents appear to embrace true sustainability.Sunflower River has no openings for new members at this time but they are a growing community that truly walks their talk. Twins Oaks and Acorn communities in Southern Virginia are runners up, but they use lavender scented natural detergent which neither of us can tolerate without becoming symptomatic.

Although the numbers are few (and we have only visited a fraction of the intentional communities in the United States), we are grateful to have found a few that seem to understand how important it is to use biodegradable products that are healthy and earth-friendly. And of these few, the Commons on the Alameda is the only one who uses all fragrance-free products!

The Commons on the Alameda Cohousing Community in Santa Fe is an extremely MCS-friendly community that has adopted a strict fragrance-free policy in an effort to create a safe haven for residents with environmental illness. Championed by an medical doctor specializing in environmental medicine who lives at the community, the shared spaces at The Commons are for all intents and purposes fragrance-free, and guests and residents are urged to comply with the policies. We are actually planning to live at The Commons this summer in order to test the waters and see how their experiment in MCS-friendly community is going, bringing with us great hopes that we will find it to be a safe haven where we can, at long last, feel comfortable and at peace.

For canaries considering looking into intentional community as a possible source of safe housing, we would like to warn those with MCS that even eco-villages and communities that espouse sustainable living as a way of life so often overlook the very products that people put on their bodies, into the water, and onto the ground. As many of us already know, mainstream products are often cheap, readily accessible, and have brand recognition that even the most alternative individuals cannot resist. The tendency (can we even say addiction?) to purchase such products is rampant, and even those who live in intentional communities often choose to drive to Wal-Mart and buy whatever cleaning products are on sale. We understand that communitarians also have to make ends meet, but when one’s habits as a consumer fly in the face of one’s proclaimed ecological lifestyle, questions are raised as to whether that community or individual is truly thinking clearly about their choices as a consumer and their commitment to the earth (and their health).

Based on our research and experience thus far, our conclusion is that intentional communities are not a safe bet for those with MCS and environmental illnesses, and the learning curve remains steep even for those who claim to be living a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

Meanwhile, many of our fellow canaries live with severe MCS which prevents them from exploratory adventures like the one we've undertaken. They are unable to risk the dangers--and expenses--of the unknown, despite the fact that they have so much to contribute. Living with MCS sadly often necessitates social isolation in order to minimize symptoms which only worsen with subsequent exposures to the most basic of chemicals. Adding to the isolation are the common financial hardships caused by the medical need to let go of jobs in toxic work places. Employees with MCS are also frequently discriminated against by employers who are unwilling to make reasonable accommodations, despite the fact that MCS is recognized as a disability by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Having MCS inconveniently interrupted our careers and engendered enormous out-of-pocket medical expenses in order to prevent our illness from worsening. Even with good health insurance, access to treatment has been very expensive and limited, and the fact that the AMA refuses to recognize MCS as a physiological illness makes finding sympathetic medical providers an additional challenge. Avoidance is the best medicine, thus our radical lifestyle change and quest for safe community living.

Our hope for the future is that more and more intentional communities will realize the importance of the need for safe housing, including across-the-board use of fragrance-free, environmentally friendly products. May they become safe havens for canaries of the coal-mine while taking their commitment to the earth and her inhabitants even further. Meanwhile, perhaps a few MCS communities will even be born from our collective desire for a safe place to rest our weary heads!

We remain hopeful that we will find a place to call home for the long-term where we can live safely and in better health. We also remain realistic that uphill battles and further education will be needed for those with whom we share living and breathing space, perhaps for the rest of our lives. For now, the two of us will continue to explore whether intentional community will fit the bill when it comes to healthy living as we land in our temporary nest with great hopes for a healthy future for all.

(For more information about MCS, please visit The Canary Report.)

News Flash--Itinerant Trio Find (Temporary) Home in Santa Fe!

After living in our rig for almost a full gestation period, we are very happy to announce that we've decided to rent a "casita" (little house) for the months of June and July. Where ever is this landing place for the nomadic communitarians, you may be wondering? Our new, temporary home will be at The Commons on the Alameda, a lovely cohousing community in Santa Fe where we spent four days several months ago. The people at The Commons were extremely warm and welcoming to us, and we feel that it will be a great place from which to acquaint ourselves with "The City Different" and spend time with new and old friends who live in the area.

While living within the city limits of Santa Fe was not in our original plans, there are some special aspects to The Commons that have drawn us to spend a few months there on a trial basis. Also, while cohousing was also not really "on our radar" in terms of intentional communities, we were delighted to discover that The Commons is quite a special place. Our experience there clearly demonstrated that cohousing is indeed a viable option for us as (short- or long-term) renters who are loathe to resume mortgage payments and the burdens of homeownership that we gladly left behind in 2009:

Aside from the kind company of The Commons folk, one of the most attractive things about this community is that they incorporate a strict fragrance-free policy for the entire community! While residents are not closely policed in terms of what they use in their own homes, common spaces are all cleaned with fragrance-free non-toxic cleaners, and all guests and residents are requested to be fragrance-free. Thus, there will be no toxic dryer sheet fumes, no chemical cleaners that give us headaches, no charcoal grills and lighter fluid, and no one coming to community functions drenched in perfume or hair gel (or so we hope)! This is akin to a miracle to us, and the notion of living in a community with this level of consciousness is a dream come true and a prayer answered.

Interestingly, many of the intentional communities we've visited use mainstream non-biodegradable cleaning chemicals, even those communities that recycle their own gray water in the interest of sustainability and permaculture techniques. We've honestly been shocked at how many self-proclaimed eco-communities use products that are not in keeping with their mission of environmentalism. However, The Commons impressed us greatly with their dedication to sustainability and maintaining an environment that is fragrance-free and safe for those with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Environmental Illness (EI). May is MCS awareness month, so in honor of that, on The Commons we place this first prize ribbon for safest community to live in aside form Earth Haven Ecovillage:

While there is a part of us that wants to just "keep on trucking", as it were, we also feel that after 9 months of rig living and more than 8,000 miles on the road, we all need a break, a sense of groundedness, and a chance to grow some tap roots in a new place, exploring how it will feel to make a new home. It is yet unclear if Santa Fe will truly feel like home, but we have enough friends in the area---and our son and daughter-in-law just 90 miles away in Taos---to feel like Santa Fe is a good place to rest our weary traveling bones, collect our thoughts, and enjoy some respite from the road. But never fear, dear Readers, this blog will stay alive, and we will approach life in Santa Fe with the minds of travelers, continuing to document our adventure as we explore one particular geographic region more deeply.

So, that's our big news of the moment as we look forward to spending the rest of May traveling through Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon. With perhaps a brief sojourn into southern Utah and Colorado, we will wend our way back to Northern New Mexico and, Lord willin', arrive to The Commons on the first of June. Yee-ha! Meanwhile, let's all...

Arcosanti

After leaving the Wind Spirit Community and driving north through spectacular mountain passes with stunning vistas (and ferocious Arizona winds), we spontaneously made our way to the "experimental town" of Arcosanti at the end of a long day of travel.

Despite the fact that visiting hours were over, Mary's intuition led us down the rutted dirt road to the Arcosanti parking lot, where we met a resident who invited us in for dinner at the community cafe. Arcosanti attracts interns and residents from all over the world, and lively conversation in several languages was being enjoyed over a buffet dinner served in the cafe. Our ersatz host sat and chatted with us for some time, and he made it clear that we could certainly camp in the parking lot overnight and go on a tour of the community in the morning.

Arcosanti is indeed an experimental community or "urban laboratory" based on the theories and practices espoused by architect Paolo Soleri. Soleri coined the term "arcology"which combines architecture and ecology in a overall concept of creating livable pedestrian cities that are ecologically sustainable and an antidote to urban and suburban sprawl.

Envisioned to be a small city of 5,000 in the desert north of Phoenix, Arcosanti is currently a village of 75 to 100 people, many of whom are architecture interns who assist in slowly moving the building process forward. Although some doubt that the city of 5,000 will ever reach fruition, it seems that the goal of reaching the capacity for a town/intentional community of 500 is certainly within reach.

Soleri's designs incorporate passive solar, active solar, rainwater catchment, the use of greenhouses for the production of heat and food, and innovative concrete casting techniques.

Soleri believes that cities have been erroneously designed to accommodate the automobile, and his designs all revolve around a pedestrian city landscape using sidewalks, escalators, bike paths, moving sidewalks and elevators to facilitate movement. Buildings are all mixed use so that industrial, commercial, residential, educational and cultural functions can occur in the same areas, decreasing the need for unnecessary "commuting" from one sector to another.

Rather than seeking corporate money or grants, Arcosanti's development is supported by the sale of Soleri's signature world-famous bells and ceramics, as well as fees paid by interns who come to live at Arcosanti to learn various construction, design and artisan techniques. Soleri developed innovative bronze casting and ceramic techniques that are taught at Arcosanti to interns from throughout the world.

Although everyone who lives at Arcosanti works for the community (as an intern or employed resident), the community plans to eventually open itself to those who work outside of the community and simply reside at Arcosanti. It is a very interesting experiment, and we hope that Soleri and Arcosanti are able to propel and further manifest their vision of sustainable community and ecological urban design.

Next stop, Sedona!

Goodbye and Thanks to Wind Spirit

As we bid adieu today to Wind Spirit, we're very grateful to everyone who made us feel welcome and provided a comfortable and healing environment to play, sweat, hike, rest, and explore community in this lush desert oasis.

In the course of our stay, we both had the opportunity to carve new walking sticks from the woody husks of saguaro cactuses, thanks to community member Kevin. Here's Mary hard at work expertly sanding her new walking stick......

And this is what a saguaro looks like.....

We also did yoga every morning on a platform surrounded by lush tropical trees and perfumed by jasmine abuzz with bees and hummingbirds.......

Dozens of flowering citrus trees can be found along many community paths......

And lovely statuary can be found in many picturesque nooks and crannies.....

And on our last evening at Wind Spirit, we hiked with Tina to the top of the ridge overlooking the community for a spectacular Arizona sunset.......

Wind Spirit is a thriving intentional community that opens its arms generously to many visitors throughout the year, and also periodically offers yoga retreats and other workshops. We might even return to offer a Laughter Yoga play weekend some time in the future, or just spend a month (or even a season) enjoying the lushness of Wind Spirit's beautiful land.

Thanks to everyone at Wind Spirit for a wonderful community visit!