Songaia, an intentional cohousing community with a commitment to live in harmony with the earth, was inspired, in part, by Thomas Berry’s classic book “The Dream of the Earth”. But before I talk about Songaia, let me share how this book transformed my life and led me to introduce Berry’s profound thinking to those of us who were re-envisioning the direction of our community.
For me, the book signaled a paradigm shift – it radically shifted my worldview. I had spent 25 years of my life as a chemical-based agriculturist and 20 years involved in human development. I was a product of the church, 21 years of formal education, and the dominant cultural story. At the age of 55, I was faced with a radical decision – to embody organic agriculture and to acknowledge that my human-centered context was too small if I was to appropriate the interdependence of all life forms. It was a beginning of a new journey, a new adventure into an unfolding future.
The year was 1990 – the place was the Residential Learning Center in Bothell, Washington, a program center and intentional community of the Institute of Cultural Affairs. It was a time of re-visioning the direction of our community. We shared in a study of Berry’s book and agreed that learning to live in harmony with the earth and all its creatures would be a central value in the formation of our new intentional cohousing community. Nineteen years later, we are 15 families working together to give form to that dream.
Songaia, a name derived from Song of Gaia or Song of the Living Earth, is located on 10.7 acres in a rapidly developing suburb designated as an urban-growth area. The cluster of 13 units in the form of 6 duplexes and a single dwelling attached to a common house is located on 2 – 3 acres in the center of the property. The common house is where families gather for meals, meetings, sharing circles and celebrations. Over 4 acres of this sacred land is blessed with lush, second growth Douglas Fir and the remaining 3 – 4 acres is dedicated for open meadow, gardens, small fruit and fruit trees. Learning how to care for this land and all its creatures is one of the great challenges and adventures of our dream.
What distinguishes Songaia from other neighborhoods is more than our physical layout – it is our intent to live together cooperatively and in harmony with the living earth. We are a diverse group of people, with different expectations and needs for being in community. All of us do not have the same commitment and passion to participate in a new earth-centered ethic, but there is an openness to explore what that would mean. So far, it has taken a variety of forms, from a community food model to shared amenities. The former consist of corporate meals five times per week and providing staple items from a community pantry, all for only $99 per adult per month. This is accomplished by bulk purchasing, informed by individual and community needs, along with growing some of our own produce.
Living in community often requires making decisions that put individual and community needs in conflict – which may be further complicated when environmental needs unto the 7th generation are considered. Making community decisions is hard work. It requires developing communication skills and using group processes. It also requires developing trust among its members. Trust is developed by creating a strong culture that is shaped by singing, heart-filled rituals, sharing time, celebrations, and traditions. With this trust comes the opportunity to wrestle with issues that shape each of us, the community, and in some ways impact the larger society.
The challenge that we face at Songaia is not unlike the challenge given by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, when he said, “The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to shake off our ancient prejudices, and to rebuild the earth”. Each of us carries the prejudices, cultivated over thousands of year (since post-aboriginal civilization), that the human species is at the center of the universe, and that the earth and all its creatures are there for our use and domination. It has been, and continues to be, the dominant human story. And, it will take the creation of a new biocentric story, and generations to appropriate this new story, as the dominant life-shaping story.
The creation of the new story, along with the language, rituals, and life patterns that will inculcate this new story, will require community. In the past, the church has been one of the primary communities to foster and perpetuate the dominant story. But it is unlikely that the church, with all of the vested interests of the institution and its members, will be in the forefront of creating and championing this new story. More likely, it will be communities in the workplace, or in intentional residential communities, and/or around environmentally social active groups that embrace and live the new story, and lead others to follow.
Thanks for that work, Fred.
The mainstream church has become either urbanized or suburbanized and has lost its historic grounding in the soil and local community. Also addiction to the Protestant Ethic has accelerated its drive to conquer nature. Thanks for the witness of Songaia as to how the urban setting can reclaim its interdependence with nature.
Keep up the work of getting your life’s wisdom written down so we can enjoy and learn from your legacy. Love you.