I’m going to keep it real with you, chief–maybe starting or joining an intentional community is going to end in heartbreak.
I do know that living in a one-bedroom apartment in a city is not something I want to do anymore. I’m dating someone I like and can see a timeline where I move in with them, and maybe that happens, but ultimately, I am being pulled towards a lifestyle where I don’t need to do Zoom meetings, or write content for tech companies for 20+ hours per week, or physically carry my laundry to the laundromat.
Joining an intentional community back in 2018 did end in heartbreak. I was evicted by the administration at the retreat center I was living at, because the retreat center was in dire financial straits, and they were beginning to evict all of the residents.
I seem to keep bringing this up in nearly every post I write, that I was evicted from The Abode, and that it wasn’t my fault. Maybe I’m trying to process trauma from that event, or maybe I’m trying to convince you that I’m a good person and it wasn’t my fault. Maybe both.
I hit my word count in the previous paragraph, but where was I going with all this?
Oh yeah, I guess I’m saying that all roads seem to point to joining a homestead or intentional community, and if I can’t join one, maybe I’ll try to start one?
But I would be a fool to buy land and become a hermit. That’s not what I want to do. I still have a dream of living in a community, and sharing meals, and building things together, and taking my time with all of it.
NYC is fine, but it demands a pace that I can’t do anymore.
I’m returning in March, so I have somewhere to return to after I go to CABIN in Johnson City, TX for two months, but at some point I’ll need to make a jump.
I would love for CABIN to work out. It doesn’t seem quite permanent as a living situation, but I’m thinking it is a good way to explore different regions of the country, and possibly the world. Possibly, I can spend a few months at each CABIN neighborhood and meet different groups of homesteaders and intentional communities, and find one to settle down in.
If it sounds sad to say that I no longer want or need to change the world, maybe it is. At this point, I am more interested in finding a slower, easier way to live, and to see what I can change about myself.
but living that way is changing the world. how do you see it as the opposite? see how capitalism has engrained into our brings that by participating we are automatically participating in change? you're going to change the word by opting out of the rat race!
kudos to you and cut yourself some slack! :) <3