GARLAND BELLAMY
|
What do we do want to do with our lives? How do we handle aging? What responsibility do we have to the natural world? And, for that matter, why did the chicken cross the road?
At one level Garland and Linda could answer the first question with cooking, trailer camping, home improvement, music, photography, feeding the poor, and the list goes on. Another answer is the one they found at Sand River: sharing their lives with a new family. As social isolation increases in society, particularly amongst seniors, the Bellamys see their life at Sand River as the perfect antidote. Living in community can be hard work. Sand River is a crazy quilt of diverse personalities and backgrounds but new squares can be added to the fabric using mutual care and consensus decision-making to stitch them together. Though there are growing pains, the pattern develops and its beauty becomes clear. Through it all community members learn from each other and grow. The principles of conscious aging empowers members to plan and embrace their individual futures with self-honesty, knowing that they have friends who will help along the way. In the greater world, they share in caring for the environment as a community by organic gardening and car sharing, for example. Individually, Linda and Garland, along with others, have installed solar power and solar water heating at their house. Beyond all of these serious but important efforts, they feel blessed to join in eating together, playing with others at game nights, sharing music, and enjoying the panoply of outdoor recreational opportunities and entertainment the Santa Fe area offers, which enrich them in countless ways. As to the last question concerning wandering poultry, some of the great minds of history have pondered that one. Garland and Linda think it may have been because that particular bird was curious about Sand River. Maybe you are as well? |
LINDA BELLAMY
|