Published July 31, 2014

The very next thing you will see from me is a three post, NLRBE-advocacy-related series, regarding libertarianism, after which the focus will shift back to intentional communities.

Specifically, I will be shifting to a discussion of visits my family and I plan to take over the next three months to, not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but at least seven intentional communities, most as far off as Missouri!

In early September, our family will be in Missouri for two weeks. While there we will primarily stay at the large eco-village, Dancing Rabbit. But we will also visit Open Source Ecology, Sandhill Farm, Red Earth Farms, East Wind Community, Terra Nova, and possibly one or more others. As an aside, although Open Source Ecology is arguably not an “intentional community” per se, there is a community of people who live on-site, working the nonprofit organization, and the mission of the organization is to create all the open source, locally sourced, industrialized machines, needed to support high-tech intentional community life.

Then, in late October, my husband and I will be attending a weeklong conference at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) and Sowing Circle Community (SCC), in Occidental California. The conference will be all about how to create an intentional community.

I am so excited about all of this! We are so excited!

It’s all part of our journey towards exploring all the different options for creating transitional, hybrid, NLRBE communities. We see this journey as the first step in a series aimed at our family ultimately creating and/or joining an NLRBE-focused intentional community. And I see it also as a way to gather and share relevant information with my readers, to help them hopefully do the same.

The journey began last August, when we visited Twin Oaks Community and Acorn Community, two egalitarian communities in Virginia.

Between then and now, we also toured a couple of other, smaller intentional communities in California, Monan’s Rill, in Santa Rosa, California, and Southside Park Cohousing, in Sacramento, California, as well as OAEC and SCC, mentioned above.

But this next batch will be unprecedented in size and scope of coverage, and in significance to the mission of exploration.

In writing upcoming posts on these visits, I am especially interested in exploring the ways in which more non-egalitarian, non-income sharing, trade-based communities, like Dancing Rabbit, Monan’s Rill, Southside Park Cohousing, Sowing Circle, Red Earth Farms, and , compare with more egalitarian, income-sharing, and gift-economy-based communities, like Twin Oaks, Acorn, East Wind, Sandhill, and Terra Nova.

My belief is that the latter will continue to prove to do the most for me, in terms of embodying NLRBE values, and, similarly, being the most noncompetitive, low-stress, and equality-generating communities.

But I have found there is nothing quite like seeing communities function in the flesh to test one’s beliefs. And we continue to be surprised about what we learn on these visits.

We’re convinced that only after such fulsome, in-the-flesh experiences, with many different types of communities, will we be able to make an informed decision as to what type might best serve the mission of transition to an NLRBE – both for our family, and hopefully for many others as well.

Hope you stick around for the ride!

By Tiffany Clark, an activist attorney, public speaker, and author, working to help us transition to a more sustainable and equitable world. Tiffany lives and works in Sacramento, CA, with her husband, two sons, cat and dog. You can find out more about Tiffany, her activities, and her offerings, as well as read more of her writing, at www.tiffanyclarklaw.com.

“Upcoming: Posts re Libertarianism and Our Many Visits to Intentional Communities” by Tiffany Clark is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.