I was invited to participate in a sailboat race at the lake where I work. A windy beautiful warm autumn day with new friends, 45/50 degrees down into the water with wet sails, and a larger vocabulary that includes jib and port and halyard. The freedom I've had since the kids have been with their dad and grandparents has me yearning for experiences never tasted, which also includes me bow-hunting this week. Yes, a vegetarian of 18 years. What does this have to do with community? Well, everything. The people I've met, my new friend Paul, wow - just wow. Paul has lived on his sailboat for almost a year, taking care of Doug, a Vietnam vet who surprisingly has lived on a bus. I have seen this incredible love for one another, an amazing community at a dock no less. And let's not forget the lessons I've been learning sharing a house with Danielle and her three small children. . .more of an experiment then anything, but patience, love, respect, and communication are the mainstays of any working community, go figure. It's been nice having learned that first hand, before I threw me and the kids out into much larger, working communities with our hands up in the air and our jaws dropped - just how un-prepared for most everything from rough living to homogenizing our family with the world is shocking, but we've been BLESSED to have had this last month to work together with each other, all the friends old and new helping out, and the world at large - the Community at large.
Think about it - what would I have in common with a 60-some disabled vet whose love of Natural Light is a love affair is almost sweet at times? More then I would have guessed. I'm not tentative of accepting and loving folks. It'll be a test of my word to teach the kids all about different people, but oh how exciting. And through all this hanging out on the dock in-between work and talking philosophies and being landlocked on a gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains and the sounds of the rattling kaleidoscope canopies, the lines chiming against the masts, I have re-gained a faith in people, in God's creation, in myself. I've actually learned somethings about living on the road, how not to take advantage, but rather barter in everything, even language - someone says something nice, you reimburse them with something nice. I've enjoyed some lively discussions about karma lately. . .
So today I met with some amazing people - Amos and Kaci - these two young, balanced-idealists who own Trosly Farm in Elk Park, North Carolina. It's a working, community-based farm that they began by themselves about 2 years ago, and have managed to almost completely work the farm for their own financial sustainability. It's a beautiful example of what can be done with the right combination of faith and hard work and ideals, though obviously, ideals need to be toned down sometimes, to be realized as ideals and be varied from that point, to paraphrase Amos today this afternoon. They have agreed, in exchange for conditioned work on some buildings and chores with the animals, pre-determined hours - to allow Sirius to be parked on their property for the 4 hardest months of winter. This afternoon my head is reeling with all that needs to be done to quickly make our lives on the bus as self-sufficient as possible - namely the wood stove, a cord of wood brought up to the farm, figuring out the logistics of Internet access where it's not really accessible - for part of the winter we will be absolutely beyond a doubt snowed in. My little front wheel drive won't help out and unfortunately we rely on that instead of horses anymore. . .So there are some potential complications when it comes to updating the blog, emailing, or even telephone communications - but the bright side of all this is that we will be so remote and with things always to do that probably 60% of the time are new experiences - this is the education I've been needing. So work ends for the season October 30, and I hope to be parked in Elk Park November 2nd, learning to process poultry (again, what's up with that? a wonderful experience that I can use to help others out with in the future - you need someone to roust up the chickens for dinner? Ok, I can do that!) and keep warm. What an excellent life I am gearing up for. Actually, back last November when I had an actual producer that flew out from LA to film us a bit, we did a short interview with Amos on their farm, talking agriculture, and most importantly the silk-strong connection food and how it's grown has effect on everything everything everything. An organic community-based, small farm with a couple that is willing to stick to their beliefs and faith. It's just no question the last 2 years has brought me to this junction for a specific reason. I can see it clearly. Money would still be a nice thing, but I'm not even sure I believe that. Capability is a much 'nicer' thing, or should I say, necessary. Which bring me full circle to sailing. No more doubts that I can't learn, which was an underlying theme from an August entry that was never posted. I'll just go ahead and put that up there out-of-order, it's more of an intimate view of my views out these eyes, though the last little bit is tinged with sadness that Matthew and I just didn't work. . . sometimes sometimes isn't enough and it has to be a peaceful parting. . .
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