Recently, I spoke with a friend about what to call our community vision. The phrase intentional community already conjures so many images and ideas. Spiritual ideals, specific racial and economic demographics, or dogmatic philosophies about appropriate behavior or habits just to name a few. What we are wanting to create feels brand new with inspiration and insights coming from many different intentional community models we have researched. I offered sustainable subdivision as an alternative term. She said sustainable felt like I was describing a primitive culture without the perks of modern-day technology. I could understand her resistance to getting excited about a community she thought would limit her access to Wi-Fi, internet, and other creature comforts we have grown accustomed to having. Especially since her income was dependent on access to these tools. It isn’t the first time I have run into this assumption when discussing intentional living. It seems many people assume that to live sustainably meaning eliminating the advancements and technological innovations of our current reality.
Well, I am here to tell you, we are not choosing between a return to the dark ages or business as usual. This is a whole new paradigm I am advocating. One that blends the benefits of technology with the regenerative platform of sustainable power and conscious sourcing. There are many ways in which we can increase sustainability, reduce dependency on external systems, and reconnect with our tribe in uplifting and productive ways without reverting to living by candle light or crapping in a hole outside our hovel.
There are over a thousand communities registered on the intentional community directory, some forming, some established, and some seeking companions or land to move forward. While they have their own unique qualities and ideologies, nearly all of them are a collection of people who believe that we can be healthier, happier, and more connected when we come together with common beliefs and collaborative intentions. Some are exclusive and expense. Others are just like most mainstream cultures in that you need a full-time income to afford to live there, but offer perks you may not get in a traditional subdivision like community gardens and off grid utilities. But this way of life still remains a tough road to travel. Each community must find the appropriate legal entities to protect their joint venture, the core beliefs and code of conduct members must adhere to, and a way to acquire the resource necessary to establish, maintain, and expand their community. It is a complicated process and most communities disband before they ever get established.
Creating a community in the states has its own set of challenges with regulatory standards that make intentional communities restricted to a very narrow set of parameters. Many activists are working to change the status quo, but it is an arduous process. There are several areas in which federal and state legal codes need to evolve to meet the demands of our current and emerging circumstances. Housing is becoming increasingly harder and harder to acquire for many middle or low income citizens. Younger generations are becoming increasingly interested in alternative lifestyles like tiny house options, flex employment, and minimalism. In short, we are moving away from the bigger is better mentality that has driven the economy for the past few decades. The housing market is the most obvious area that this shift has and will continue to impact or ability to survive and thrive.
I was born and raised in the states. Its culture taught me it was all about the benjamins (money), baby. We often attempt to deny the monetary system when wanting to live an alternative life, but even that way of living has to get funded some way or another. America has adopted an attitude of everyone for themselves. The money you have or don’t have is a direct reflection on how success you have been in taking care of yourself. We are taught we can become or accomplish anything we want, but to thrive in this world, you really need to achieve very specific goals to make that happen. Personal development, spiritual advancement, relationship intimacy, creative mastery and emotional intelligence are not valued unless they are tied to an ability to monetize them.
If a young boy or girl, for example, wish to work at their local grocery store as a cashier when they grow up and give each customer a positive shopping experience, they are going to have a tough time thriving in our modern culture. They may have relationship intimacy and emotional intelligence as their primary goals in life. They may understand that this service oriented job would provide the perfect platform to cultivate and strengthen these life skills. Most parents would probably encourage that child aspiring to customer service employment as their career goal to pursue management. Because entry-level employment would not be considered a viable way to support themselves or their family. Maybe they would suggest to partner with a more wealth-producing companion in life knowing that the American dream most often does not extend to people in these positions. So this child learns that to live a certain standard of life, they must become ambitious in their pursuit of money in order to live comfortably. And since we have an everyone for themselves culture, that pursuit will be in competition with others seeking the same end. So their desire to be of service to their interests and of service to their community become secondary to their need to make money to survive. Unfortunately, this mentality seems to prevail in most intentional communities as well. Where can a service-oriented person without a drive to rise to the top offer their needed skills to the community without reducing their opportunity to live a thriving and sustainable lifestyle? This question, in various forms, and its most value answer or answers has been a central focus in my adult life.
I use grocery store worker intentionally here. I worked for several years in the wellness department of a health food store. I loved that job, but it was considered by most a position that undervalued my abilities, education, and experience. However, to me, I was on the front lines of health providing an important service to people who needed a caring, knowledgeable employee to help them make improvements in their health. I valued playing my part in their personal journey. I received gratitude and acknowledgement daily from both customers and management. But I wasn’t in a position to support my family and grow into the lifestyle I desired, namely living in an intentional community that eliminated the necessity for me to work for money to fund my survival. My vision was a sustainable, regenerative, and collaborative approach to living. Something I had a glimpse of while working in that health food store, but nothing that was attainable without having access to more resources.
You may be wondering what this has to do with intentional living or innovative community models. Everything. Many people seek this way of life as an alternative to the mainstream competitive monetarily-driven dynamic. People like the child desiring a customer service related job, myself, individuals burnt out trying to cope with the pressures of corporate life, spiritual seekers devoted to a call beyond that of employment, and so many more all needing more balance and well being in their daily lives than mainstream culture currently provides. Hardworking, innovative, forward thinking individuals inspired to brave a new reality and build something dynamic and sustainable are eager to have an alternative to ‘the way its done’. Can you relate?
In order to achieve a life of co-creation, people are seeking options that promote the development of true resources as opposed to the acquisition of money to buy these resources. Unfortunately, at this stage of the story, you can’t exit the monetary system without money. I know it seems ironic, but you need money to transcend the need for money. Why is this? Because we have monetized the resources required to survive.
Food, water, building materials for dwellings, seeds, tools, land and textiles for clothing are all monetary expenses. Basic material needs essential to surviving in a physical body have been deemed profit-producing commodities. While these things are actually necessities that all human beings require to survive, we have allowed a philosophy to penetrate all modern culture promoting these resources as a privilege and not a right.
In America, those who receive these resources through social service programs are considered recipients of handouts funded by the taxpayers who are contributing members of society. The financially elite are see as receiving the most and contributing the least to others. Perhaps this is the norm in other countries as well. The monetization of basic physical needs perpetuate separation and competition in the most fundamental aspects of human existence. We must meet these needs or die. Therefore, in the current system, we are not free. Freedom is the anthem so many people wanting an alternative lifestyle are chanting. Freedom, empowerment, self-reliance, collaboration, and balance.
So, again, the question of how someone can thrive in our physical world outside of the monetary-driven infrastructure continues to fuel my journey through this modern day life. The broadest insights that arise around this topic have to do with a blending of technological advancement that support the well being of the whole population coupled with an evolutionary perspective of how resources of this planet are allocated and distributed equitably among all living inhabitants. Humanity has and continues to develop technologies that can provide clean water, adequate food supplies, comfortable housing, free energy, while removing the pollutants that have amassed all over the world. But it will not be a government that propels these advancements into the mainstream way human being operates. It will be the masses. All of us coming to a realization that growth and abundance is not a privilege relegated to the fortunate few, but an inherit birthright all living beings are entitled to when they are enter the physical world at birth. A right that they are entitled to until they take their last breath. That means aligning with the perspective of Oneness and affirming that we are ready for a new way to exist. This shift can most noticeable be seen in the intentional living movement. Now we need to broaden the message to touch people of all ages, races, cultures, and classes.
I admit this is a huge and all pervasive topic. It would be several books worth of discussion to even begin to address all the areas of our life it affects. It touches everyone on this planet. As globalization continues to grow, even indigenous cultures that were previously untouched are being impacted. Many of these tribes are open to educating outsiders to the wisdom of their way of life so that it may be preserved and spread. But the challenges they face to preserve their culture and way of life are often outweighed by the invasive entities that threaten them. Many people in developed cultures are seeking a way to move back to a simpler, connected lifestyle. But so many of them don’t see how it is possible and so they remain entrenched in a system they do not know how to exit.
This dissatisfaction with life as we know it is the catalyst for the intentional community movement that continues to gain momentum every year. While many are drawn to communal living, many others will defend the system as it is now and seek to maintain it. But the beautiful thing about this vast world is you don’t need to convince anyone that this is the way they should live. There is a growing number of our population that can see no other option than to simplify, downsize, self-actualize, and co-create a healthful and harmonious environment for all. For others, they will continue to function in the world as it is, until it changes to meet the demands of a new empowered paradigm. The more we work individually and collectively to ensure basic human rights for all people and seek to improve our relationship with our environment at large, the more appealing and approachable these shifts will become to the masses. In the meantime, we find encouragement to connect with our like-minded co-creators and remain compassionate to everyone’s process of evolution.
And so it is…
Much Love,
Suyana Cole
Author of The All Inclusive Approach: The Art of Divine Remembrance