Manifesting a dream
I'm in the midst of a major sorting/cleaning/purging o' stuff cycle and I was going through a box last night that had all of my old papers from when I was in school. I came across an essay that I had written back in 2006 about what we were starting to create at Sidhehaven. We had only had the property for about a year at that time, and we were just really getting started on building up the infrastructure. It was so interesting for me to go back and read through what we had intended, and then to compare that to what we have created. There are a few minor little bits and pieces we are still working on but for the most part we have managed to accomplish everything that we were initially working towards.
We're currently in the process of crafting new goals to work on. mostly with the intent of helping Sidhehaven to become more self sufficient, as well as adding things that would facilitate or make more comfortable those who come here for retreats or visits. I thought it might be interesting to take what I had written before and bring it up to date. About the first 3/4's of this is copied straight from my original document and the last bit has been updated to change the language from "we will" to "we have" as well as adding in the bits that were not part of our original vision statement.
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." This quote, from Margaret Mead, has been a guiding influence in my life for as long as I can remember. About fifteen (almost 21 years ago now) years ago, I started to think very seriously about what it was that I wanted to do with my life after I retired from the army. I had been forced to live so many years, not being able to truly “be in” the spiritual lifestyle that I wanted, and I really felt the need to create a space where my spirituality and my love for my Gods could be completely integrated into every facet of my life. I also wanted to find a way to “model change” by living my life as an example, and sharing with others simple things that they would be able to incorporate into their own lives to make a difference. About the same time, I also started to come to the realization that the traditional American family model (nuclear family) just was not ever going to work for me. After a great deal of thinking and talking with my peers and mentors, I decided that my vision was to establish a spiritual healing center and retreat space. Helping others to heal, takes more then just giving them a pill. People need a place they can go to, to let their spirit gently recover from the chaos and stress that modern life produces.
I started doing a lot of researching and gathering of information, identifying and refining the types of things that I wanted to include in this dream vision of my “life to be.” I read every book I could put my hands on about Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Sustainability, Creating Community, Intentional Community, Energy Healing, Healthy Living, and many others. Some of the core values that I established at that time were: Spirituality underlying everything; open-mindedness, and living with an open heart; a permanent sacred space for the Gods; intentional family; intentional community; providing a space for those who needed to heal; permaculture and sustainability; living lightly on the land; creating a space that was not just functional, but artistic as well; and expense sharing among the members of the household. With all of this in mind, I began looking across the United States for the best place to establish my household. In about 1999 I picked the Pacific Northwest. There are just so many things about this region that come together to support what I want to surround myself with. There is a sense of environmental responsibility here, a support of spirituality; however you choose to express it, a true feel of community, and many other reasons. I initially looked at Northern California, but the cost of living in California was far above what I projected as our financial capability. Then I looked at Oregon, specifically in the Portland and Eugene areas, but there was not an army post close enough for me to be able to get transferred out to the area prior to retirement, to start setting up our community. Finally, I selected the Olympia/Tacoma area of Washington State as being most convenient, and conducive to my achieving all of my goals. It took my “playing office politics” for about 3 years, but I managed to get moved out here in the summer of 2003.
In 2002, I had already started trying to put together an intentional family. Chris (bless his heart), agreed to move from Seattle to North Carolina, where we lived for a bit over a year along with my daughter Ashley. Chris has said that while moving across the country was a big step for him, starting to work with me towards building this dream, was what helped to make it worthwhile for him. With a lot of good luck and planning we managed to get moved out to Washington State after our time in North Carolina was over. In the spring of 2003, Chris & I cleared out of our house in North Carolina, and started the trek to the west coast. We found a house, located outside of Yelm, WA (I know, I know, where the heck is Yelm???), moved our friend Angel up from Vancouver, and started trying to learn how to live together as an intentional family. Raven joined us in November of 2004, moving up from southern California. For Raven, the sense of family and community that we’ve begun to create has been a totally new experience, and one that he never anticipated he would come to value so much. We’ve gone through a lot of rocky points. Lots of growth and learning for all of us. I had a really hard time, “sharing power” at first. (Okay, honestly, I still have difficulties with that, but I acknowledge it, and I keep trying to work through it.) We’ve gotten better at identifying the things that are “must haves” for our family, things that we each have to have in our lives as well as things that really are not that important.
In the fall of 2004, our friend Angel decided that community living was not for her, and she returned to Oregon to live with her best friend; and Chris, Raven & I began doing focused work at growing closer and stronger as an intentional family unit. Specifically, we started scheduling weekly meetings to talk over and define our goals and objectives, as well as establishing a firm policy of open communication.
In March of 2005 we bought a house on 2.6 acres of land located mid-way between Yelm and Rainier, WA. We came up with a 5 year building plan, and started turning Sidhehaven into a wonderful space to be. In 2005, our first building project was to add a front porch onto the house to be used as a gathering space. Chris and Raven collaborated on the design, and we had several friends who assisted with the building at various different times through the summer. We also put in the first, of several planned gardens. Currently we have garden spaces scattered around the property, many of which are designed and maintained using permaculture principles. Our goal is that 90% of what we plant is either edible or medicinal and we are working towards creating an "edible landscape". Most of the items being used in the gardens are reclaimed or recycled.
We have worked very hard to co-create Sidhehaven as spiritual healing space. We try to listen carefully to the spirit of this place and work with the land, not just impose our will over the top of it. We have a Yome which can be reserved and used for personal retreat space (we operate primarily on a gift economy and usually ask for folks to make a modest donation to the household maintenance fund or do work/trade in exchange for staying here). We also have a pop-up camper that we use in the summer as a space for our garden intern(s) to stay (we've used the WWOOFing program and also gotten volunteers through the local community). We have a hot tub, two fire pits, numerous shrines, a walking labyrinth and a working art studio including a full set up for pottery. We host at least one open spiritual event a month as well as several bigger events throughout the year. In all of this, we strive to follow as closely as possible the principles of permaculture and sustainability, we use recycled materials as much as possible, and where we can, lower our impact on the land.
As I read back through this something came to mind that has to be highlighted. There is NO way we could have accomplished so much without the support of our families, our friends and our community. I look around Sidhehaven and I see the porch and the fence that Raven's parents helped us pay for; the Yome that my parents donated; the big fire pit that Daniel spent so many hours digging the gravel out of and putting down soft sand in; The shrine for Grandmother Spider that Chris built; The gardens that Emily and Elise and Jamie and Chris and Kimmy and Janette and so many others spend time pulling the rocks out of and using pickaxes and shovels to dig deeply to establish the garden beds as well as the hours and hours of never ending weeding; The art studio filled with equipment which was donated or sold to me for much less than its real value; The bronze statue "Breaking Free" that Lisa sort of long-term loaned to us, "because it needed to live here"; The wooden statues carved by Mark; The brick pathway laid by Rob; The bamboo being loving nurtured by Randy; The hours of time that Joe has spent building and fixing and maintaining the buildings on the property; The labyrinth that Kat spends so many hours weeding so that people can walk it barefoot; The mushroom ring around the faerie shrine that Colleen created; the list just keeps going. So many hands and hearts that contributed and keep giving, time and money and energy and love. Thank you. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
This has been my dream and vision and watching it grow into reality and being able to share it with others has brought so much joy and love to my life. I can't wait to see what the next year, 5 years, 10 years.... the future... brings.
www.sidhehaven.com
We're currently in the process of crafting new goals to work on. mostly with the intent of helping Sidhehaven to become more self sufficient, as well as adding things that would facilitate or make more comfortable those who come here for retreats or visits. I thought it might be interesting to take what I had written before and bring it up to date. About the first 3/4's of this is copied straight from my original document and the last bit has been updated to change the language from "we will" to "we have" as well as adding in the bits that were not part of our original vision statement.
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." This quote, from Margaret Mead, has been a guiding influence in my life for as long as I can remember. About fifteen (almost 21 years ago now) years ago, I started to think very seriously about what it was that I wanted to do with my life after I retired from the army. I had been forced to live so many years, not being able to truly “be in” the spiritual lifestyle that I wanted, and I really felt the need to create a space where my spirituality and my love for my Gods could be completely integrated into every facet of my life. I also wanted to find a way to “model change” by living my life as an example, and sharing with others simple things that they would be able to incorporate into their own lives to make a difference. About the same time, I also started to come to the realization that the traditional American family model (nuclear family) just was not ever going to work for me. After a great deal of thinking and talking with my peers and mentors, I decided that my vision was to establish a spiritual healing center and retreat space. Helping others to heal, takes more then just giving them a pill. People need a place they can go to, to let their spirit gently recover from the chaos and stress that modern life produces.
I started doing a lot of researching and gathering of information, identifying and refining the types of things that I wanted to include in this dream vision of my “life to be.” I read every book I could put my hands on about Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Sustainability, Creating Community, Intentional Community, Energy Healing, Healthy Living, and many others. Some of the core values that I established at that time were: Spirituality underlying everything; open-mindedness, and living with an open heart; a permanent sacred space for the Gods; intentional family; intentional community; providing a space for those who needed to heal; permaculture and sustainability; living lightly on the land; creating a space that was not just functional, but artistic as well; and expense sharing among the members of the household. With all of this in mind, I began looking across the United States for the best place to establish my household. In about 1999 I picked the Pacific Northwest. There are just so many things about this region that come together to support what I want to surround myself with. There is a sense of environmental responsibility here, a support of spirituality; however you choose to express it, a true feel of community, and many other reasons. I initially looked at Northern California, but the cost of living in California was far above what I projected as our financial capability. Then I looked at Oregon, specifically in the Portland and Eugene areas, but there was not an army post close enough for me to be able to get transferred out to the area prior to retirement, to start setting up our community. Finally, I selected the Olympia/Tacoma area of Washington State as being most convenient, and conducive to my achieving all of my goals. It took my “playing office politics” for about 3 years, but I managed to get moved out here in the summer of 2003.
In 2002, I had already started trying to put together an intentional family. Chris (bless his heart), agreed to move from Seattle to North Carolina, where we lived for a bit over a year along with my daughter Ashley. Chris has said that while moving across the country was a big step for him, starting to work with me towards building this dream, was what helped to make it worthwhile for him. With a lot of good luck and planning we managed to get moved out to Washington State after our time in North Carolina was over. In the spring of 2003, Chris & I cleared out of our house in North Carolina, and started the trek to the west coast. We found a house, located outside of Yelm, WA (I know, I know, where the heck is Yelm???), moved our friend Angel up from Vancouver, and started trying to learn how to live together as an intentional family. Raven joined us in November of 2004, moving up from southern California. For Raven, the sense of family and community that we’ve begun to create has been a totally new experience, and one that he never anticipated he would come to value so much. We’ve gone through a lot of rocky points. Lots of growth and learning for all of us. I had a really hard time, “sharing power” at first. (Okay, honestly, I still have difficulties with that, but I acknowledge it, and I keep trying to work through it.) We’ve gotten better at identifying the things that are “must haves” for our family, things that we each have to have in our lives as well as things that really are not that important.
In the fall of 2004, our friend Angel decided that community living was not for her, and she returned to Oregon to live with her best friend; and Chris, Raven & I began doing focused work at growing closer and stronger as an intentional family unit. Specifically, we started scheduling weekly meetings to talk over and define our goals and objectives, as well as establishing a firm policy of open communication.
In March of 2005 we bought a house on 2.6 acres of land located mid-way between Yelm and Rainier, WA. We came up with a 5 year building plan, and started turning Sidhehaven into a wonderful space to be. In 2005, our first building project was to add a front porch onto the house to be used as a gathering space. Chris and Raven collaborated on the design, and we had several friends who assisted with the building at various different times through the summer. We also put in the first, of several planned gardens. Currently we have garden spaces scattered around the property, many of which are designed and maintained using permaculture principles. Our goal is that 90% of what we plant is either edible or medicinal and we are working towards creating an "edible landscape". Most of the items being used in the gardens are reclaimed or recycled.
We have worked very hard to co-create Sidhehaven as spiritual healing space. We try to listen carefully to the spirit of this place and work with the land, not just impose our will over the top of it. We have a Yome which can be reserved and used for personal retreat space (we operate primarily on a gift economy and usually ask for folks to make a modest donation to the household maintenance fund or do work/trade in exchange for staying here). We also have a pop-up camper that we use in the summer as a space for our garden intern(s) to stay (we've used the WWOOFing program and also gotten volunteers through the local community). We have a hot tub, two fire pits, numerous shrines, a walking labyrinth and a working art studio including a full set up for pottery. We host at least one open spiritual event a month as well as several bigger events throughout the year. In all of this, we strive to follow as closely as possible the principles of permaculture and sustainability, we use recycled materials as much as possible, and where we can, lower our impact on the land.
As I read back through this something came to mind that has to be highlighted. There is NO way we could have accomplished so much without the support of our families, our friends and our community. I look around Sidhehaven and I see the porch and the fence that Raven's parents helped us pay for; the Yome that my parents donated; the big fire pit that Daniel spent so many hours digging the gravel out of and putting down soft sand in; The shrine for Grandmother Spider that Chris built; The gardens that Emily and Elise and Jamie and Chris and Kimmy and Janette and so many others spend time pulling the rocks out of and using pickaxes and shovels to dig deeply to establish the garden beds as well as the hours and hours of never ending weeding; The art studio filled with equipment which was donated or sold to me for much less than its real value; The bronze statue "Breaking Free" that Lisa sort of long-term loaned to us, "because it needed to live here"; The wooden statues carved by Mark; The brick pathway laid by Rob; The bamboo being loving nurtured by Randy; The hours of time that Joe has spent building and fixing and maintaining the buildings on the property; The labyrinth that Kat spends so many hours weeding so that people can walk it barefoot; The mushroom ring around the faerie shrine that Colleen created; the list just keeps going. So many hands and hearts that contributed and keep giving, time and money and energy and love. Thank you. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
This has been my dream and vision and watching it grow into reality and being able to share it with others has brought so much joy and love to my life. I can't wait to see what the next year, 5 years, 10 years.... the future... brings.
www.sidhehaven.com