Feelin' Alright!

Hi friends. Thought I'd take a quick moment and send an update from my angst-y last post. Don't know what gets into me sometimes - I lose perspective and from the bottom of my own little pond things momentarily seem much more bleak than they actually are. My last post was "inspired" by frustration with the process of community life, and the convolutions we must go through in order to get decisions made. This is not a bad thing - being a part of a consensus-based community is something I really value. I just get a bit fatigued by the day-to-dayness of it all.

Kurt and I had a lovely snow-covered Christmas. On the 26th I boarded the train and headed for Chicago where I was entertained in style by our faux-nephews Peter and Ed - oh, the stories they tell! On the 27th flew to SFO and then to Oregon. It takes a long time to get ANYWHERE from Rutledge, MO.

I am currently in Coos Bay, Oregon visiting my three fabulous nieces and their mom. On New Year's Eve I fly back to the SF Bay Area where I'll spend five days on a sort of a personal retreat - no cell phone reception, no wifi - just long walks, a chance to write, and time to think. Then another five days in Berkeley, hosted by the marvelous Miss Lindsey, where I'll have the chance to catch up with old friends.

Life is good. Thanks for all of your kind thoughts. I'll post more when I'm home and have access to my own computer.

love,
Alline

Feeling Torn and Tattered

It's a Jackson Browne kind of day. The song "Before the Deluge" keeps playing in my head - it reflects a bit of the gray day and sadness I am feeling right now.

Let's just say the building a village is a lot harder than it looks.



Before the Deluge
Jackson Browne

Some of them were dreamers
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other's heart for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge

Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow
For the glitter and the rouge
And in the moment they were swept before the deluge

Now let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by
By and by...
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky

Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge

Now let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by
By and by...
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky

Sweeping Chimneys

Cole Miller, Firefighter and Chimney Sweep

Just a quick note. We had our chimney cleaned yesterday. Kurt had called Miller's Up the Chimney and we were delighted when Cole Miller showed up. Not only did he have a van full or high tech equipment and a great big smile, he also had traditional black top hat on his head.

He was done in less than half an hour, and did it all from inside the Mercantile. He even had a Hepa filter - not a bit of ash escaped, and now our chimneys are better than new. He didn't even mind that Alyson, busily making bread in the kitchen, hummed "Chim Chim Cheree."

We highly recommend him if you're anywhere near Quincy, IL.

On Being Dangerous, an Heiress, and just a bit Nervous

One of the nicest things in my day is to open my email and read the daily Writer's Almanac. Sent Monday through Saturday, each missive contains a poem and info on authors, artists and other interesting people who were born on this day.

I especially love this poem. As I am often most adventurous in my imagination, I love the thought of being considered "dangerous" without, really, being much of a threat. Because after all, deep down, I'm basically just a girl scout.

To Be a Danger
by C.G. Hanzlicek

Just once I'd like to be a danger
To something in this world,
Be hunted by cops
And forced into hiding in the mountains,
Since if they left me on the streets
I'd turn the country around,
Changing everyone's mind with a word.

But I've lived so long a quiet life,
In a world I've made small,
That even my own mind changes slowly.
I'm a danger only to myself,
Like the daydreaming night watchman
Smoking his cigar
Near the dynamite shed.


It was also on Writer's Almanac that I found this quote from Fran Lebowitz:

"I have a hard time writing. Most writers have a hard time writing. I have a harder time than most because I'm lazier than most. ... I would have made a perfect heiress. I enjoy lounging. And reading. The other problem I have is fear of writing. The act of writing puts you in confrontation with yourself, which is why I think writers assiduously avoid writing."

I have decided to make Fran Lebowitz my new Patron Saint, right along side St. Dymphna, who is patroness of those afflicted with mental and nervous disorders (as the St. Dymphna website points out, "there are few people in the world who are not at some time or another troubled with their nerves."). Sounds about right.

More ecovillage news soon. I have to go practice being an heiress.

Reality Meets Fantasy at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

The following will appear in the Novermber 11, 2011 issue of the Memphis Democrat.

If you had asked me, when I first moved to Dancing Rabbit eleven years ago, what I thought life here would look like, I probably would have waxed rhapsodic about a simple life – relaxing in front of the fire in the winter, growing vegetables in the summer, taking long leisurely walks in the fall. I imagined spending a lot of time chatting with friends, lounging in the sunshine and reading, baking crusty loaves of bread to be topped with home-made jam, and generally living the good life.

In the years since my arrival I have found that reality is often in conflict with my vivid imagination. I have also learned that compromises are required in virtually part of my life, and that the simple life requires a lot of work.

While lounging and relaxing are certainly a part of my Ecovillage life, they are just a teeny little smidgen part. Unlike life in well-established towns and villages, members of Dancing Rabbit spend an inordinate amount of time creating structure for ourselves. This is enormously time-consuming, but also enormously gratifying. Imagine being able to have a say in every decision made about your community – from roads (where they go, what they are made of, where the drainage is, what they are named), to cemeteries (what will they be like – rows of markers or a more natural conservation area? Do we allow embalming? Who can be buried here?), to energy policy (should we start planning for a huge wind turbine?), to pets (how many free-roaming dogs are too many? What about cats and songbirds?), to social events (who is hosting Thanksgiving this year? What will we do for New Year’s?). We do it all. And it takes hours and hours and hours.

Additionally, when something happens here at Dancing Rabbit, good or bad, we are the ones we call. Is that downpour flooding the road and the Community Building? Then we had better all get out there with shovels to divert the flow, since we can’t exactly call MoDot. An outbreak of chicken pox among the children, and we have a pregnant member and several members with compromised immune systems? We had better figure out a way to keep everyone safe and healthy while taking care of the little itchy ones. So-and-so’s dog snapped at someone? We had better evaluate what happened and take appropriate action, since we will not be calling Animal Control. Maikwe’s roof just blew off? Well, let’s get over there and cover up the hole so the rain doesn’t get in.

We all serve on at least one committee; most of us serve on several. There are committees for virtually everything: Long Term Planning, Kids, Pets, Vehicle Co-op, Land Use Planning, Tree Team, Outreach, Development, Oversight, Goals & Priorities, Membership, Land Clean, Donations, Infectious Disease, Roads, Parking Lots, Conflict Resolution, Mem Dem column, Retreat Planning, Decision Making…

In addition to all of this we are raising much of our own food, chopping and hauling firewood, building homes, educating children, running businesses, and trying to demonstrate that it all can be sustainable.

What do I like best about our chosen way of life? We get to live here, with people we respect and admire. We are living lives that feel true to our values, even if we might not have everything figured out yet. We get to observe the seasons changing on 280 gorgeous acres of rolling hills and prairie that we are restoring and stewarding. We get to watch our children and the children of our friends grow and flourish. We have a community with which to share the triumphs and celebrations, as well as sadness and disappointments.

So in this season of Thanksgiving, I would like to express gratitude to all of my fellow Dancing Rabbit members, both past and current. Thank you for all of the time you give to make this a better place to live. Thank you for the hours you spend on committee work. Thank you for all of the little things you do to improve our village, working behind the scenes, that no one ever knows about. Thank you for all of the things you do that feel unacknowledged. You are making a difference. And you are appreciated. Thank you also to all of the families and friends of Rabbits, whose support is invaluable. Thank you to those of you in the wider community who have become friends over the years – you help to make our lives here rewarding and full. Thank you all!

We Interrupt This Blog for Chocolate

Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour
Servings: 12

1 cup butter, cubed
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan, and line with parchment paper. If your springform pan is bent, like ours is, be sure to put it on a baking sheet so that the batter doesn't drip all over your oven. If you don't have a springform pan, use a regular 8" x 8" brownie pan, or a 9" round cake pan. Butter the pan and line it with parchment - you really DO want this cake to come out of the pan.
   
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in chocolate, and continue to stir until almost melted. Remove from heat, and stir until melted and smooth.
   
3. In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cups sugar and the cocoa powder. Whisk in the eggs until well blended, then whisk in the chocolate and butter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for about 45 minutes in the preheated oven. The cake is ready when the edges have nicely puffed and the surface is firm except for a small spot in the center that will jiggle when the pan is gently shaken. Cool cake in the pan over a wire rack. Run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake, then remove the sides of the pan, and invert onto a serving plate. Remove the parchment paper.
5. Cut the cake into wedges while warm. Serve with ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of toasted, slivered almonds. You can also chill the cake, then warm again before serving.

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Natural Burial at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

The following originally appeared in the Memphis (Missouri) Democrat:

This is Alline writing for Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage.

A team of five or so writers share authorship duties of this column, giving each of us the opportunity to “chat” with you every five weeks, and to share our perspective of life here on the prairie with its attendant joys, sorrows, challenges and triumphs. I usually find it so easy to write – I really enjoy this sort of communication, especially when I receive emails in return, or when I meet someone in town who says with a big smile “oh! I read your column in the paper!” So it is odd that I am having so much difficulty with today’s column.

Instead of the usual comings and goings I would like to write about what we’ve learned about natural burial and home funerals. It is not necessarily an easy topic, but the more I learn the more empowered I feel, and the more passionate I am about sharing it with others.

Before our friend and Dancing Rabbit member Tamar Friedner died while in hospice care in Massachusetts (where her immediate family lives) she requested to be buried here in Missouri. Her family agreed, and the Dancing Rabbit planning machine went to work. Nothing we did here was new. Instead, we found ourselves going back to the “old ways.” In doing so, we found catharsis, love, community bonding and a way of grieving that actually helped ease the pain.

This column is not a criticism of funeral homes or the work they do. We were helped tremendously by a funeral home in Massachusetts who prepared Tamar’s body for transport to Missouri, and our friends at Gerth and Baskett graciously answered many, many questions for us. Instead, it is an exploration of available choices of which the majority of Americans may be unaware.

Natural burial is a family or community-centered response to death and after-death care. Through many millennia, we cared for our dead within the context of the family or the community. Over the years we have gradually turned this care over to professionals, and by doing so, have lost many of the rituals and rites that help friends and loved ones say good-bye in ways that are deep and meaningful. We also often spend a lot more money than we need to.

Most state laws support the right of the family to care for their own departed. Depending on the specifics of each state’s law, families and communities may play a key role in:

• Planning and carrying out after-death rituals or ceremonies (such as laying out the deceased and home visitation of the body)
• Preparing the body for burial or cremation
• Filing of death-related paperwork such as the death certificate
• Transporting the deceased to the place of burial or cremation
• Facilitating the final disposition such as digging the grave in natural burial

Home funerals may occur within the family home or not. Some nursing homes, for example, may allow the family to care for the deceased after death. The emphasis is on minimal, non-invasive, and environmentally-friendly care of the body. This all blends well with the ethos here at Dancing Rabbit.

When friends heard that Tamar was to be buried here at DR we got some lovely, albeit inadvertently funny, phone calls. “Are you allowed to do that?” one friend whispered. “Won’t you all be arrested?” Others were certain that they would never be allowed to do as we were doing because “in Texas you have to be embalmed.” This is incorrect - one does not have to be embalmed in Texas, and we were not arrested. Contrary to popular belief, there is no law that states that a body must be embalmed. In most places in North America, the only reason you must embalm a body is if you are transporting it by plane. Traditional Jewish funerals do not involve embalming. Most people assume that undertakers somehow need to be involved in a funeral. But in all but eight states, that is not the case.

Because of space constraints I am not able to go into many details here; instead there will be several smaller, more manageable pieces. Included will be a bit more about our care of Tamar; learning more about burial on your own land; conservation burial, a more natural alternative for those who do not own land; shrouds, caskets and concrete vaults; and much more. We are also planning an article in The March Hare, Dancing Rabbit’s quarterly newsletter. If you are interested in receiving these articles, please email me at rabbitak at yahoo dot com and I’ll make sure you receive them. Additionally, if you have specific questions let me know and I'll try to cover them.

In the mean time, I leave you with some of the excellent resources in which we found guidance, reassurance and compassion. All of these resources will be discussed in greater depth in future articles.

Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love by Lisa Carlson. An amazing compendium of everything you need to know about funerals, whether or not you plan to do it yourself. Includes state-by-state sections on laws regarding embalming, transport, etc.

Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial by Mark Harris. Harris discusses the ways in which Americans have shifted care of the dead out of the hands and homes of friends and family as he tours various burial options, from the most environmentally intrusive to the least.

Funeral Consumers Alliance A nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting a consumer's right to choose a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral.

Final Passages Information on green and family-directed home funerals.

Home Funeral Directory