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Empowered Individuals Create a Powerful Community

Submitted by catya on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 09:49
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By Sandy Thomson

Every year around this time we have a community retreat. It is a time for all of us to reconnect. To get to know each other on a deeper level. Sometimes the retreat is facilitated with outside help and sometimes from members of the community.

The first night, Friday night, we have a potluck, a ceremony of some kind,and then we watch the Heartwood movie. The movie is made by gathering all the photos and movies that people have taken of life at Heartwood or individual accomplishments for the year and these are put to music by two of our teenage girls. They have been doing this now for several years. It is a fun way for them to contribute and the product is always amazing and something we can look back on in 10 years and see how we have changed and grown.

The Heartwood Shuffle

Submitted by catya on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 08:57
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By Sandy Thomson

In our community it's not where you live that matters, but that each member stays connected and gets their needs met. This idea is embodied in what we affectionately call the "Heartwood Shuffle". The Heartwood Shuffle is a dance of compassion and meeting needs. Sometimes it's two steps forward and one step back. We never know when the dance will begin or when it will end. Last year the dance started with my neighbors whose kids had grown and moved out. They wanted to spend a year away on retreat at their beautiful cabin in the Conejos. That opened up their house for rent. Another family was crammed into a little studio apartment with the two kids and another on the way. They worked it out to move into the spacious home next to me and their third child was born not long after.

Swing your partner to the left. This opened up the studio and someone who was just renting a room, got their own place.

Public and Private Values & Smoking

Submitted by Sharon Villines on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 14:14
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By Sharon Villines

There is currently a thread on Cohousing-L about smoking policies in cohousing communities — what are yours and how do they work? The policies range from quite restrictive on the basis of protecting public health and encouraging healthy lifestyles to simply prohibiting smoking in the common areas but allowing it outside as long as no one present objects. Some specifically define smoking.

Part of the question is whether it should be banned in private homes.

I can't imagine that any community would try to ban anything in homes as long as it doesn't invade or cause a clear danger to other homes, for example offensive odors, noise, poisonous snakes, or storage of flammable materials.

How Much Health Support Can We Provide?

Submitted by Sharon Villines on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 11:15
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By Sharon Villines

One of the advantages of cohousing is that there are many neighbors just outside your door who can help when you are sick or injured. It is a challenge, however, when this is a long term or serious illness. Your desire to help, the expectations of non-resident family members, the obvious needs of your neighbor, and your own needs may all conflict. The cohousing value of neighbors helping neighbors may also bring feelings of guilt when you say no or feel over-burdened yourself.

When a neighbor at Takoma Village suddenly needed daily care, the family needed guidance on what the community could do and when they needed to find help elsewhere. After talking with nurses and a lawyer who specialized in health care, one of our residents developed the following guidelines for what was reasonable for residents and their families to expect from other residents in emergencies.

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Guidelines for Providing Health-Related Support to Neighbors

Fall is in the air!

Submitted by catya on Mon, 10/31/2011 - 10:27
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By Sandy Thomson

Hi, I want to introduce myself. My name is Sandy and I live in Heartwood Cohousing. www.heartwoodcohousing.com and www.heartwoodfarmscoop.com. Our community is about 11 years old and is located in Southwest Colorado. I have volunteered to write a monthly blog where I will try to give you an up close and personal look at life in CoHousing.

This is a beautiful time of year here in Southwest Colorado. The fall colors have gone on and on this year. The smell of snow is in the air and things are starting to change over to a whole new season. We have put the farm to bed and sent our wonderful farm interns on their way to new adventures. Community meals have more soups than salads now, and life seems a little less hectic.

The Cohousing Blues

Submitted by catya on Tue, 06/21/2011 - 14:35
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Performed by Craig Freshley

Reflections of a Cohousing Elder

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Renate G. Justin

The blizzard Renate G. Justin writes about in this story brought Colorado to a screeching halt for three or four days. No doubt there were many households in which cabin fever took hold. But in the state’s diverse collection of cohousing communities, deep-walled pathways to the common house turned the blizzard into a great excuse for a party. -DLW

Greyrock Commons, Fort Collins, Colorado

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Growing Pains, Trials, and Triumphs

Katharine Gregory

Katharine Gregory’s story was a welcome addition to this anthology because it highlights so many familiar cohousing practices and very effectively answers the question, “How can we make this work?” -DLW

“So, what’s this crazy living situation you’re into this time?” my longtime friend Lindsey asked me over the phone from the East Coast. That was shortly after I’d left a voice mail message for her trying to tell her about the cohousing neighborhood my husband and I planned to move into.

Chapter Four: Visiting Five Cohousing Communities

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Here in Colorado, many a devoted hiker has climbed all fifty-three peaks that are higher than 14,000 feet. It would might be an even greater challenge to visit all the cohousing communities in North America, especially since—unlike Colorado’s Fourteeners—a new one seems to appear every month. Raines Cohen, a resident of Berkeley Cohousing, observes that cohousing communities (and their guest rooms) are now within a day’s drive of each other all the way across America. “Boston, Ithaca, Ann Arbor, St. Louis, Lawrence, Denver, Salt Lake, San Francisco Bay area,” he says, offering one possible itinerary as evidence. “You could also tour cohousing on the East and West Coasts that way,” he adds. The nice thing about such a tour is that guest rooms tend to be pretty reasonably priced, from “Suggested donation” and “Please wash and dry the sheets” to $35 or so. And chances are decent there will be a common meal the night you’re there.

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