January 2006

The learning curve at Echo Valley has just gone up a notch. This year we will farm. Organic. Sustainable. And hopefully with a surplus that may help a few others...The practicality of small farms, community based, seems so obvious, the need so great...To watch the children marvel as they realize food doesn't grow at the local grocery. To have to use your body as well as your mind to accomplish a task - not simply press a key on a computer...To learn again what people have known for ages: we need one another. The fence goes up quicker, the fields plant faster, and different observations go a long way in solving a problem.

The insistence on building "green" and moving away from toxic energy use is as much about conservation as it is the appreciation of simple living.

Someone asked if we are "survivalists." After a bit of thought, I came to the conclusion we are "flourisher-ists."

I had a friend, Pearl White was her name. Nearly fifty years my senior, she would wind the stories of her life around the things she wanted to teach me. Her life had seemed a magnet for harm and disrespect, but that wasn't what captured my attention or my respect. Once she told me that she planted a rose everywhere she ever lived - to leave something of beauty behind when she was gone.

Pearl was a "flourisher-ist."

If I have to be something, I think that is a good thing to be.

At Echo Valley you are welcome as we learn and explore.

sur-vive - 1. to remain alive or in existence 2. to live longer than 3. to live or persist through

flour-ish - 1. to grow well or thrive 2. to fare well 3. to be in one's prime 4. to make bold sweeping movements