From Private to Community Ownership. Writing to get Clarity in the middle of the night.

Date:   7/6/2008 3:47:37 AM ( 16 y ago)

1:15 AM
July 6, 2008

There are numbers of Intentional Communities that have
models of leadership where a Community rather than an Individual
or series of individuals owns the Property.

We are in some kind of a transition here at the
Enchanted Garden Intentional Community.

It is an interesting process.
We are feeling our way through it,
wanting to be kind to each other.

I just woke up with a flood of inspiration.

Here is just one of the floodings:

This is an Energy Accummulation
organized in a manner that asks about 1000 hours
per year to fulfill itself. This Community would require
about 1000 hours per year to run smoothly and be
responsible for the 1/3 acre here in a way that did
not create a mess and was up to code as well as being
managed responsibly.

It has not been clear how many hours it actually takes
to have some standard of Order here.

All I can say is, in the Fairy Tale of this Place
there is an enormous physical mess.
This comes from many reasons including
Time Debting.

Time Debting means taking on too many things.
Each Seed we take on asks about 1000 details for the Plant to fulfill itself.
Each Detail asks Time. There needs to be an allottment of time build in
to allow for the completion of the Plant that will come from each Seed planted.

There are times I have felt that attempting this Experiment
has been an impossible task. Perhaps my unconscious suggestion
that I took on was that I was not a good person, or that I needed
to suffer, or fail. Perhaps this was an excuse I used to keep from
succeeding in other areas of my life. Perhaps I was afraid of that success
in other areas of my life, so this was a great distraction.

I have about ten books on the shelf. Each would require a team effort
I imagine to get them out.

Sometimes, I have noticed parents who have given their whole life
away to children and then realized that they had given away too much.
Why did they plant the child in he first place? This is something to look at?
What was the need? What was the desire? Did the parent realize how much
of their personal life and attention was going to be asked to fulfill the job
of parenting/sheparding/stewarding the child?

Once we take on a responsibility for a child or a project, we either have
to nurture the child or project to a point where it can stand on its own two feet,
or we have to make some kind of shift.

I imagine that is why so many families end in divorce
or so many fathers abandon ship. They are not up to the job.
It was not clear why they entered into the parent agreement in the first place.

I never consciously intended that managing this place would be a full time job for me.
It just isn't built into my M.O. to be a full time Property Manager.

Yes, I cannot conceive of living in a less natural place.
Yes, I am here the world to fulfill my Soul contract as a writer and teacher
as well. These are also full time jobs if not managed consciously.

There any infrastructure here to currently support a full time Property Manager.

If I worked for the Community, and had to make an accounting of what it took
to do what I do here, and I was putting in the hours to do what I do,
the invoice would be extreme.

It is like at times, I have been working for about 10 cents per hour, or so it feels.
In some sense, I am been investing in the future of this plant, that one day this plant
would give back for what I have invested.

I know some of what I am saying here is not fully explained in a way that
others can understand what I am saying.

Flash!
The Community as a Whole asks certain tasks be done.
The required investment would be hundreds more hours to get the job done
than I have been putting in, or getting paid to do.

This at times has felt like an energy drain or an energy suck.
At times I have felt angry about what I got into, without being able to express
or understand what I was angry about.

It would be clearer to define what I do as a task, and then have funds raised
to pay for such tasks to be done.

A whole community would have to buy in.

Right now, it is the rents that pay for the bills to be paid
including some small amount of funds that go for Property Managing,
Record Keeping, etc.

All this asks to be looked at.

Here is another more concrete example of the energy imbalance:

In normal commerce, storage costs so much per square foot.

Here, there is no defined cost per square foot.

Now, we are in another summer where we want to clear out stuff
to make more space for new growth and better utilization of the shared spaces.
I gave about two months + to this project last summer. The experience
was debilitating.

If the spaces that are taken up now with clutter and projects were paid for
per square foot, or the person (s) had to pay for storage space off the property,
their bill for storage would likely be in the $100.00's of dollars per month.
It would cost a storage space of perhaps $300.00 I guesstamate at a minimum
per month for that much stuff that is stored here to be stored consciously
and paid for.

Here are two other examples to be looked at:

Every seed planted, consciously or unconsciously, becomes a plant.
When we unconsciously plant, we later have to pay to deal with what grows.

There is one brazilian tree over the garage.
I did not consciously plant this tree. I do not know how it came to be planted.
I did enjoy the tree. It was the largest in the neighborhood.
It got so large it started to dig into the garage. It was moving the building.
It costs $775.00 to have an arborist trim a number of the branches.
Other estimates to remove more of the tree--an energy accumulation--
would have been around $1200.00.

In getting rid of that tree, first I looked at paying an individual
$10.00 an hour. It would have taken about 60 hours of their time.
The people who did the work with the proper tools took about seven hours at most.

I gave about five hours of my attention to the project.

What plants are growing here on this property?
What is the cost of having them here and tending them?
What plants do I want to have growing here?

Here is another example to look at:

In allowing so much storage space to be taken up on the property,
now the community has to all give energy to help motivate or physically help the person
deal with the accummulation so we can free up the space.

This will involve many, many hours of labor.

Have you ever looked at the cost of getting rid of things?

A dumpster for a week now costs around $700.00 I guesstamate.
Then, what happens to the stuff that is dumped?
Where does it go?

Perhaps other people will want some of this stuff?
How much energy will it take and hours to get rid of the stuff?
Who will do this?

Garage sale? Craigs List free givaway?
How much time to organize such things on the part of those who
will do this?

There is a lot to be looked at as you can see.
Time. Energy Space all required with each Seed we allow to grow.

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