I wonder if you know that there is a place where you can look in any direction and see nothing but trees; where our roads and highways are invisible beneath the arching branches. People live by the thousands in the shadows of those trees; yet the only sign of their presence is a curl of smoke, or the tiny square of their field. Who knew that man could ever look so small, that civilization could be nothing more than a bare spot in a forest. Who thought that with our pavement and high-rises, power lines and streetlights, we would ever again see the darkness, or the uninterrupted stretch of forest. Did you ever think that you could walk the trails the natives left us, and see the same view which they once gazed at? It is unbelievable that despite the reports of deforestation and extinction, pollution, development and population explosion there are still tracts of land which fill the eye with untouched splendor. Isn't it amazing that one can drive ten minutes away from the highway, and look down on our native wilderness, the homeland we've never seen.

Perhaps you wonder as I did, what type of person lives in the shadows of this land? Where is the consumer, the waster, the exploiter of whom we have read so much? The person who drenches their yard in chemicals so that they can have a golf course lawn. The people who demand that the malls cater to their every whim, who want forests cut down to package their toys, who want a new stereo when they tire of their old one. Where is the legendary Nielsen family, who beg the networks for sex, violence, stereotypes and human degradation. How has our government managed to protect this land from us? How do they prevent these people from spewing the poison of our society on the ground beneath them?

I'll tell you. Our government has done nothing to keep these people from ruining our land. They have given them no rules, no restrictions. All they have done is what they do everywhere, which is to make the unhealthy life the easy life, to create ridiculous and outdated laws in the areas of food production, taxation, waste disposal, building and energy production. So then, who lives in these woods and builds these houses which don't outreach the trees? Nobody more unusual than citizens of the Western world. People who were born in this Land of the free, went to school in our dehumanizing education systems, watched our violent cartoons. People who have been told this world is gone to crap.

Yet these communities support their local farmers in raising organic produce, and work at the farm to raise that very food. In fact across the street from that farm is an old dairy farm packing their chemicals into trucks and going out of business. These are townspeople who establish their own alternative schools to provide the education they believe our children need, heat their homes with the gentle caress of the sun, and dry their clothes on the line. There are those who refuse to eat the meat of tortured animals, refuse to make a living off the trading of our land, and those who make an art out of the living of their life.

What a magical place, it's like a glimmering emerald, sitting in the center of our mud puddle. This is no national park, no wilderness refuge; yet here is a forest that almost swallows up the people within it. This is no commune, just a series of small towns; yet here are people living well, doing what they believe is right. Here where we expect to find a wasteland is a natural beauty. In the middle of a society which has become a plague on earth is a group of people doing what you never hear about, living right. They are different than the ones you've read about: homesteaders tucked off in the woods, or crusaders fighting the good fight. These are ordinary people, and they are out in the open.

I want you to pay close attention to this spot; you may notice something. The mailman comes to these towns and brings letters; the phone lines bring in calls and faxes and e

mail. Letters and messages from people who live in beautiful places. People who live in houses underneath the towering mountains, next to the raging sea, or on the shores of a deep lake. Some of these people grow their own food and build their houses out of earth; they teach their children and create communities; they share with their neighbors and love their work. When these people stand outside all they see around them is natural beauty, and hardly a trace of their civilization. Some of these people travel around this country, this whole world, and everywhere they go they find natural beauty and people living in it. Everywhere they go they find people living well. Everywhere they go they find people worrying about others, conserving, working hard, loving their children, loving the land, and giving back to their world.

So you would be mistaken if you thought of my magic spot as a wonder. This is not a miracle, a rarity, or a feature for the nightly news. This is America. This is the world. This is what you see when you look at life through your eyes rather than the television tube. This is what you find when you walk outside, and when you talk to real people. This isn't what the anchorwoman says the world is like, or the editor, or your teacher or the politicians. This is what the world is like.

This secret land made itself known to me as I stood on a south-facing cliff face near the peak of North Pack Mountain. All around me were the hills and mountains of southern New Hampshire. A forest covers those mountains, stretching away in every direction, interrupted only by small bare squares with tiny houses in the center. Nothing I can say could relate to you what I learned by just standing there, in a wilderness so close yet so far from my world. I knew at that moment that there was still a planet here for us, and there were people on it who were doing the best job living on it they could.

Looking out from that mountain I could see the fields and buildings of Derbyshire Farm, the home of the Gaia Education Outreach Institute. I lived there for one month this summer with ten other human beings, as we did our best to study what we called sustainable living: How can we live on this planet healthily, both for us and the generations to come? More importantly, what are the questions we need to ask when considering this issue, and how can we search for the answers?

The Gaia Education Outreach Institute is an organization devoted to spreading the idea of sustainable, healthy living through healthy education. For several years now they have run a spring semester course that takes students around the globe, experiencing life in several intentional communities. However the Institute's long-range goals are to create a working eco-village right on Derbyshire Farm, as a demonstration site for students who come and live at the eco-village. This site will tie in with other sites around the country and world, as well as colleges and secondary schools to create an educational network focused on sustainability. Our summer group was the first of a series of student groups who will participate in residential summer and semester programs at the Farm. The purpose of these groups is to begin work on the design of this eco-village, and in the process to learn something themselves of what sustainable living entails.

At Derbyshire we attacked our subject matter in three ways: by learning about sustainable living, by helping to design a sustainable community, and by living a sustainable life. In each of these subjects we explored the physical, mental and spiritual aspects, combining academic work with physical work, as well as discussion and play.

In everything we did we considered sustainability in terms of community. Human life always exists in the form of a community, and any wide vision of a sustainable future must deal primarily with communities of people. A plan for sustainability which deals only with individuals is useless to the majority of people, those who do not have the luxury of independent living. We examined intentional communities, and learned from them both the struggles they faced, and the skills they acquired which allowed them to persevere. Some of those skills we then applied to our own tiny community of teachers and students, in order to experience the effort of creating a community atmosphere. These experiences were vital to the task of designing a full-featured sustainable eco-village.

Learning about sustainability came through reading, discussion, and observation. We discovered the huge library of resources out there: books, magazines and people. We read together and on our own about communities, vegetarianism, alternative energy, gardening, building, economics, nutrition, zoning and money systems. Local permaculture sites and land trusts allowed us to meet the people involved in these ventures. A biodynamic community farm allowed us to become involved in the work of remaining sustainable. We discussed what it takes to be sustainable. We found that there are innumerable issues that have to be dealt with in this world if we hope for a viable future. In me, all of this produced a growing awareness of the many aspects of life I'll have to consider, if I want to live sustainably. We paid special attention to the many intentional communities which already exist, and how they have dealt with these issues.

Designing a sustainable community meant stepping away from the theoretical, global view and looking at one place: Derbyshire Farm. Before we considered what kind of community could exist there we had to get to know the place. We had to learn where it was we were living, through our eyes, feet, maps and calculations. We then considered how we could best live on this land. We worked to make our visions holistic, places where the entire human spirit was considered, and the cold reality of life as well. Our hope was to develop ideas which would eventually be a part of the coming eco-village. The real benefit for the students, however, was the experience of learning to apply our theories to the real world. We confronted some issues which we would never have experienced unless we attempted to create our own homestead or community. I came away with knowledge which would help me build my own community; others found help in finding a community to live in, or in building their own home and farm.

In living sustainably we strove to consider all its aspects: the world, body and soul. We began with the basics, creating a sustainable approach to food. We ate vegetarian, and tried to buy local food when possible as well as organic. We tried to avoid waste in food and packaging. We made sure to stay physically active, and combine our learning with work: weeding, haying, clearing trails, and hiking. We conserved water and energy in showers, dishes and cooking.

Also important to us was living a healthy emotional and spiritual life. The program included check-ins each morning concerning how we were feeling; we practiced silence and meditation, and held council circles. What we were working on was living an aware life, and creating a sense of community between us. Cooking and cleaning, exercising and chatting, these are some of the mundane details of life that are typically ignored in education. Yet, this was probably the most important portion of our course, because we learned to apply our knowledge and our beliefs to our way of life.

I came away from Derbyshire with more than newfound cooking, site-evaluation and consensus decision making skills. There were lessons that occurred solely within myself, lessons my soul learned. I went through changes that altered not only what I plan to do, but what I am.

For many years my plans for the future have been for my fiancee and I to find our own piece of land, build our own house, raise our own food and support our own family. We want to be free of the "career life," able to spend our days with each other and on our own terms. I considered the idea of living with others; a group of homesteaders sharing the land and materials, homeschooling and working together. But I felt that collecting a group of people who shared my visions would be too close to impossible.

I learned at Derbyshire that communities such as these have existed for centuries, sharing resources, working and schooling together. There is more than the practical benefits to attract people to community life; community can be the healthiest way to live. Intentional communities are made up of people who have chosen to live together, and to agree on a set of common values. Such a community creates a healthy atmosphere for living and raising children. It encourages people to grow and to share, despite a society that pulls people apart.

I also learned that the community movement has flourished and evolved right up the present day. Much of the independent living literature has, up until the present day, ignored the issue of community, and our popular media has as well. Now here I was at Derbyshire discovering that community is an active issue in our culture, and perhaps our main hope for reasonable living.

With the resources I discovered at Gaia Institute, I now had the means of contacting others interested in community. The issue I faced now was whether I really wanted to live in an intentional community. Along with all the benefits of truly living with others we learned some of the drawbacks. Would I be willing to compromise facets of my vision for the sake of community? Would I be willing to abandon my isolation and utter privacy? Could I share my space and possessions? Would I allow others to have such a vital role in my life? Many of these issues still make me queasy, because I have a very private and possessive nature. But at Derbyshire I discovered within myself the conviction that community is what I need. It is another portion of the person I need to become. I have always catered to my isolationist tendencies, as I would be by moving off to the woods. At Derbyshire I came to the realization that I do not need to continue down that path I know so well. By choosing community I will be choosing to develop the part of me that deals with others. I will have taken a step out of my introverted world into the world beyond. Community can be the channel through which I interact with the outside world.

What is it about that outside world that has kept me away? How about the fact that it is screwed up beyond belief and beyond help. That the majority of people couldn't care less about living well, or helping others. I work as a tutor, and I have seen how difficult it is to have an effect on my students. Changing the world requires changing the attitudes of the children, and I have found no way one can seriously influence these kids. There are too many influences working on them, and what is most frustrating is that they just don't care. The ones that are willing to be helped and to learn are the ones that don't need any help. It is the ones that don't care that are the problem. Thus my attitude: it is useless to try and change our society, the only effect I can have, or need to have, is on my own life and the lives of my children.

I learned a lesson at Derbyshire that changed my attitude. I did not come to think that I can change the world, go out and convert people to ecological living, or convince them to live lives of simplicity. I still feel that the only ones who would listen to me are those who have already chosen that particular path. The difference is that I have come to realize that helping people along that path is an important thing to do. I had always thought of it as an unimportant task; those who wished to change their lives would do so without my help. But at Derbyshire I became conscious of all the help I had required on the journey down my path, and what a serendipitous path it has been. If I had decided not to flip through the UNH course book I would never have found the Gaia Education Outreach Institute, and would not even be aware of the community movement today. It seems that all the important people I have met, and books I have read, were found through 'happy accidents'. What drives me is this thought: How many people would be walking down the path of sustainable living but never met with the right accidents? What about people who wanted to change their lives, who had the will, but never found the right book, or took the right class? Guiding those who have already chosen their path is important, in fact it is the most important thing we can do, the only thing we can do. The one thing we can't supply is interest.

For some reason we allow our only hope for the future to be passed along by coincidence and luck. At Derbyshire I discovered resources I never imagined existed, and I had studied self-sufficiency for over three years. Imagine the dearth of information for those just starting on this path. These resources must be made available to them from the outset. How much easier my search would have been if this country was scattered with communities like the one envisioned at Derbyshire; if they were in the newspapers, on tv, on people's lips; if they talked at my school, and sold us our food. Those beginning this path must be told that there's is not the lonely, desolate path it is made out to be, but rather a thriving thoroughfare.

In this mess of a world, what buoys my spirit is the knowledge that there are places like Derbyshire. Places that try to open your eyes and light your way, and that can change your life so utterly. Places that will let you climb up to the top of the mountain and see the world with your own two eyes. Who knows what changes would come if people of like spirit gathered in places like this. I don't think that we will solve any world problems, or become some driving force behind world affairs; the world will always be run by the foolish. I only hope that we will be there for those who want us. I hope we will gather together in communities, and serve as shining examples. That we will gather, not to convert others to our cause, but to act as illumination for those trying to find their way. At first, we will only be beacons. But someday, we will be suns.