Re-discovering Village Life

Dear friends of Dancing Rabbit,

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. At the start of this campaign, I touched on the idea that what Dancing Rabbit is already doing well is re-learning, re-imagining and re-discovering village life. I wanted to elaborate on what I mean by this, and why it is so important that we make this experience accessible to as many people as possible.

What does it mean to be a villager?

Honestly, I’m still figuring it out. Dancing Rabbit is still figuring it out. However, I believe it’s a way of being that most humans have only recently forgotten. It still exists in pockets around the world, and in ourselves, waiting to be re-kindled. I think most people can inherently sense what it means, and its importance. Because of the patterns, expectations, and restrictions of modern life, it feels very far away, and even impossible to realize for ourselves.

However, since I posed the question, I’ll venture a definition: A villager lives in a tight-knit community, deeply connected to the seasons, the land, and the people around them. They have a high degree of autonomy, yet everything they do contributes meaningfully to the village in which they live.

There’s much more to being a villager than can be captured in a definition. It is largely a feeling, one which is incredibly hard to describe, but is perhaps best illustrated by the unfolding of everyday life in the village:
 

1. Dropping by a neighbor's house, unannounced, to borrow a tool, ask for advice on planting potatoes, invite them to a last minute game night/dance party/sauna, or share a beverage and chat about the latest in community going ons.
2. Regular sharing of meals on many levels: daily meals in our family-sized kitchen coop, weekly potlucks with the village, and seasonal celebrations with the extended community.
3. Coordinating with fellow villagers to determine how we can utilize our common forests and pastures to meet the needs of our various grazing herds/flocks.
4. Knowing that there are many people in my life who I could honestly check in with if I needed emotional support, or help working through any type of problem.
5. Cooperation on many levels: Dairy Co-op, car Co-op, kitchen Co-ops, Agroforestry Co-op, and the Common House Co-op, plus the everyday informal cooperation that naturally unfolds.
6. Many ways of exchanging/providing goods and services not based on money: Bartering, gifting, volunteering, and communal work parties to name a few.

There are also some aspects of being a villager that, while foundational and intensely meaningful, necessarily take a long time of living intentionally on land together. These are things we are striving for, and in this striving, planting the seeds which future villagers will hopefully harvest:
 

1. Creating a culture of place: Our food, celebrations, design of our homes and common spaces, daily/weekly activities, worldview and spirituality are deeply rooted in, and spring from, the land we inhabit. We place a high value on rootedness and commitment to place. 
2. Living multi-generationally with related and non-related people, existing together seamlessly. I think there is something incredibly beautiful about a community inhabiting a land where they know their ancestors have lived for generations, and with a high likelihood that their descendants will continue to inhabit the same land.
3. Becoming indigenous to a place by the culmination of cultivating a culture of place for many, many generations. While unachievable in our lifetime, we can start now. There are painful truths to reconcile when re-indigenizing on stolen land. It’s important that we go about this process in a way which acknowledges the genocide and forced exodus of indigenous people who once inhabitted the land that our village, as well as most of North America, exists upon. However, I believe westerners' lack of an intergenerational connection to the land that sustains us is, in part, what has allowed us to disregard and damage our planet and it’s indigenous inhabitants so deeply. You can read Dancing Rabbit’s land acknowledgement statement here.

Why does this matter?

Many of the ills that people experience as a result of modern life, including lack of meaning, loneliness, environmentally destructive practices, and unhealthy/disconnected food culture have a direct answer in this way of being. This is NOT to say these will always be cured by becoming a villager, but it is a container which makes addressing these issues much more feasible. By Dancing Rabbit existing, and welcoming folks into our village, we are showing them that a different world is possible, and whether they choose to pursue a life here, or bring the gift of new knowledge and perspectives to their own communities, we are committed to making this life-changing experience accessible to everybody.

That’s why the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture (the non-profit which runs DR’s programs) is implementing a sliding scale for all of our visitor programs.

In order to make this possible, we need your support. The Hothem Family has once again pledged to be our matching donor for Giving Tuesday, this time matching every dollar up to $7,500!

Here is how you can get involved:
 

1. Give. From now until midnight on November 28, go to dancingrabbit.org/donate and donate.
2. Spread the word. Encourage your friends and family to join you in creating a real impact by forwarding this email, texting them, or posting on your social media account and sharing how Dancing Rabbit is creating the change you want to see in the world!

In community,

Eric Mease

Villager/Land Steward/Administrative Assistant/Development Lead

Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture at