Happy Hogmanay!
I've been planning to write a post about cordwood building, permaculture, and a new dream for cooperative farming in Virginia (creating a debt free home base here from which to plan towards our work in Africa). Yet again, I've been inspired by the most recent interview on Speaking of Faith, which explores the L'Arche movement founded by beloved Canadian philosopher and Catholic social innovator Jean Vanier.
L'Arche is a model of residential community founded through principles of love and acceptance, expressed through caring relationships between "core members" (people with mental or intellectual disabilities) and "assistant members" who provide support in a context of mutual transformation. Like the Catholic Worker Movement (that I've been in love with for years), L'Arche has its roots in the best kind of Christian theology. A faith-based core provides a foundation of resilience and optimism, but people of all or no faiths have been drawn to participate. Hearing Vanier describe his experiences living in L'Arche communities, I can't help but relate his words to mindfulness practice. Attention to the body, acceptance, kindness, care... This could be an extraordinary model to incorporate into whatever home we build in Nigeria, where people with disabilities are still so often shunned and cast out of families and other havens. L'Arche already exists in Africa, in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Zimbabwe.
I've added "living for a year as an assistant in a L'Arche community" to my cluster of lifelong dreams - right up there with cycling across America and building a home with our own hands. Speaking of which: cordwood construction = next post.
"You see the big thing for me is to love reality and not live in the imagination -- not live in what could have been or what should have been or what can be -- and somewhere to love reality, and then discover that god is present." - Jean Vanier
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