S OON AFTER WE STARTED COLLEGE, we realized we did not want that contemporary educational system. Traveling to different communities and serving internships for room and board seemed like a much better way to learn a variety of skills that would be more life-oriented than career-oriented, cost less money, and be more fun than we experienced at our colleges.
The Tekiah community ran an ad in Communities magazine asking for interns. We started corresponding with them, and a few letters and telephone calls later we found ourselves driving up the Blue Ridge Parkway, twisting and turning our way into rural Floyd County, Virginia. Topping a hill and to the left just a few mailboxes down stood the old frame house that held Tekiah and the currently forming community, Abundant Dawn.
Abundant Dawn is a group of people, mostly ex-Twin Oakers, who decided to relocate to Floyd County and join with Tekiah, a small egalitarian community. Their joint vision is to create a new community of smaller subgroups or "pods."
We pitched our tent in a corner of the backyard, nearest the garden and the abundant heavy hanging tomato patch. After a day spent driving, exuberant introductions, new food and faces and work to be done, and one last gasp at the huge sky and crisp stars by the thousands, we climbed into our tent to wait for blissful sleep. Instead, the tremendous sounds of the country greeted us. The sounds of the city had never kept us awake like the bellowing of cows, the piercing chirps of crickets, and the buzz of cicadas.
Mornings, we would wake up refreshed, cleansed, and invigorated by the morning dew. The air felt crisp and vital. Often we awoke to the sounds of Nina working in the garden or Mark wrestling with the compost pile. Then it was into the house for breakfast and off to work.
Abundant Dawn didn't need our help in one specific area, but rather to generally ease the workload. We felt some initial unease about what was expected of us. It would have been easy to feel obligated or the need to work continuously to earn our keep. However, community members often said we didn't need to work as persistently as they did. The work was part of our life but didn't regulate it. We worked varied hours, mostly in the garden and the kitchen. David Cooper also helped renovate an outbuilding and both of us went into Blacksburg once a week to sell produce and homemade foods at the farmers' market.
At first we felt intimidated by the large, unfamiliar community kitchen, with its jars of beans and grains and whole wheat flours, and honey instead of sugar. The first morning there Margaret refused to awake to the fact that the community didn't use sugar and so proceeded to sweeten her coffee with another white granular substance ... salt. We usually had one or two group meals a day, and everyone took turns cooking. It was exciting to go to the garden before a meal and gather the needed vegetables. We liked thinking of the prepared food as recently alive and growing in the warmth of the sunshine, vibrant and full of energy.
The garden was delightful. As city kids who had seen vegetables only in stores, we enjoyed identifying each one in its growing form. Some were obvious, and others, such as brussels sprouts, surprised us! Mark worked with us in the garden, giving long, detailed scientific answers to our naive questions.
A large shed stood across the yard from the main house. Denis and Angelika were in the process of renovating it and making a warm nest for themselves and their soon-to-be-born baby. They asked David Cooper to help build the door and window trim, his first carpentry job. He learned as he went along, by actively doing it, not by sitting behind a desk and reading how to do it. Now David Cooper can make that desk, an ability that never fails to excite him.
One of the unforseen benefits of living at Abundant Dawn community was that they were all still in the process of learning to live with each other. A new group forming is does not always go smoothly. They argued, fought, disagreed, felt uncomfortable, shed some tears, and talked through many issues. They came up with ideas and tried them for a week, and then if those ideas didn't work out they'd change them again and try other ideas. The most valuable thing that we learned at Abundant Dawn is the importance of good communication.
The community did several things to increase better communication. Once a week they had two consecutive meetings, with dinner in between. First was the business meeting. The second dealt with emotional matters. Often business issues overlapped into emotional matters. Dinner was an integral part of the equation. After some of the inevitable heaviness of business matters, it was a relief to be able to eat a good meal and relax with the same people. Afterwards we'd all do the dishes and then retreat back to the living room, spread out on the three big couches, with Mark on the floor peeling garlic, and begin the next meeting. We'd often start with "check-ins," where everyone took a moment to reflect on his or her experiences during the last week, and hear how others were doing. Abundant Dawn included us in their meetings. We contributed and made suggestions. Once Margaret suggested that the members take time to appreciate somebody or something that had happened that week, and the community adopted it. Before that the members had adjusted to substantial changes and often did not take the time to acknowledge and thank each other. These meetings were the glue that kept the community together.
Because some members of Abundant Dawn were as new to each other as we were to the community, we blended in and grew with them quite naturally. Abundant Dawn offered a convenient camouflage--an unspoken temporary membership that allowed us to settle in and call it "home."
As serious and difficult as some of the meetings got, we experienced equal amounts of fun and frivolity. We played games, such as Homemade Bowling with a ball of yarn. We had a ritual to "christen" the new cottage and recognize the transformation of Tekiah into Abundant Dawn. The members wanted a symbol for their new community. Margaret suggested an idea they all liked--making a mobile to which each member could add an item. Because the hanging items must be balanced, each person's item would work with the others to keep the whole mobile in balance--a perfect metaphor for community. As new people came or others left the community, the members would have to shift and rebalance the mobile ... just as in life.
We also became involved in a weekly circle gathering and attended a variety of celebrations with members of Abundant Dawn and other wonderful new friends in the area. These events were great to be a part of and we felt warmly accepted. For us, ritual and celebration are wonderful mediums for connection and closeness with others. They're activities of creating with each other. It is art--an active, moving collage.
We also met with a group of artists every Friday for life drawing sessions. Being active in the larger community of Floyd County gave us a rich sense of what community living could be. People stopped by to barter, to participate in a variety of community activities, or to just say "Hi."
Our experience with Abundant Dawn was rich and beautiful. We learned so much that we realized that to get a thorough understanding and a fulfilling experience of a community one has to stay at least several months, if not longer. We intend to continue interning in communities in place of college. Originally we planned to do this for a year. Now it will probably be a few years, a lifetime actually. But that's another story ...
Copyright © 1996 by Fellowship for Intentional Community. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed by the authors and correspondents are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.
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