Warm greetings!
I’m just back from a wonderful trip where I had the gift of staying with a beautiful intentional community of 15 adults and 4 children close to Tamera in the South of Portugal.
Intentional community: An intentional community is a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They typically share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include collective households, cohousing communities, coliving, ecovillages, monasteries, communes, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, ashrams, and housing cooperatives. New members of an intentional community are generally selected by the community’s existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners (if the land is not owned collectively by the community). Thank you Wiki.
The south of Portugal, with it’s warm climate, natural rural landscape, power spots, reasonable land prices, as well as strong existing communities such as Mooji, the spiritual teacher’s base, Monte Sahej and Tamera, who’s vision is to birth Terra Nova – a world beyond war with a regenerative, nonviolent culture by building Healing Biotopes: futuristic centers that research and model a new planetary culture, make it a special place for this type of living.
As we look around us we can see that the nuclear family is a challenging way to live. Despite loneliness, isolation, large work load as well as financial burden it is a popular path in the Western world. Is it the way of the future though? There are many ways of living our journeys on this planet and it is nice to remember that we all have options.
It takes a village to raise a child they say. If you’ve not experienced that, ever wondered what it might be like?
I have. For over 10 years I’ve had a vision of community living. The vision just came to me, I wasn’t even looking for it! I was asking however, how I could best serve the world and fulfil my potential in this lifetime. Shared land, your own home, shared spaces for gathering with the community, eating together, growing food with a group of open minded, conscious people, responsible for and committed to their own journey and self-realisation appealed and felt good as it dawned in my mind. Since then i’ve been watching and learning about community life, knowing that this is probably the direction I will naturally go.
The community I stayed at is occupied by 15 adults and 4 children. 3 families, and a number of single adults, both male and female ages of all ranging from about 5 to 70. There are 7 acres, 2 -3 of which are to remain untouched natural environment with a well, lake, forest on a hill and natural landscape. The community meet 3 times a week and all jobs are fulfilled in a voluntary manner. People volunteer to cook lunch, attend the vegetable garden, chop wood, attend jobs etc. Every day at 1pm a volunteer cooks a big lunch for everyone. A bell rings and the community gather (if they wish which they seem to – I did, the food and company was amazing!) around the table. Outside the community some work part time, are artists, retired, in school etc. The community recieves openly many visitors and also holds workshops both by community memeber and visitors on topics such as new wyas to communicate (NVC), 5 rythms, yoga etc. Just so you know, if you are intersted (!), anyone who wishes to join this community must formally apply and live there for 1 year on probation at which time the community will decide whether or not it is the right fit for all parties.
What I always wondered was what would happen to the consciousness of such a group, who are all taking responsibility for their journey’s issues, growth etc? Who are committed to living the path of self-realisation and to supporting each other on the path? Who are consciously choosing peace, community and love as a way of living? From the energy perspective this would send ripples of peace and good vibrations out into the wider environment. From within the community, I imagine a group who keep evolving will receive more and more enlightened ideas, visions and approaches to living and being of service to each other, this world and the creator. It is truly inspiring to know that this is happening here in Portugal and in communities all around the world, including Ireland. I too believe it is time for man and woman to walk together in harmony, to turn inward for direction, recognise service to the divine as the highest peak, for when we remember divine service everything naturally flows in abundance!
One of the lines I heard at Tamera, and read in the book Temple Of Love, which I purchased there, is,
The Journey from Fear to Trust.
This is the journey we are all on at this time. Pondering this and the feeling of trust has given me a more gentle awareness of the flow. A focus upon trust has stayed with me since this and continues to show me the way and shine.
Is community something you would consider?
I would love to hear your ideas on and vision of community.
Also any experiences you wish to share with trust.
As the American $1 bill says, In God we Trust.
Much love,
Orla
