A Place of Refuge - A Bit on Stewardship

Finally, I'm back to talking about this community living stuff! And you are on the edge of your seats, waiting to read more. Yes? I wrote about sharing and fellowship as two of the major goals and benefits of living in community. Now I want to talk a little about stewardship - both of our personal resources and of our environment.

Whether you believe in the reality of global warning or not, there is the simple fact that we do have limited resources on this planet. Once we push an animal to extinction, it is gone forever. Once we pollute the air, we don't have a quick way to pump out all the filth and replace it with fresh air. We have no choice but to breath in all the pollutants. Do you have a filter on your tap water? Wonder why? In this county it is necessary. You filter your water, or you drink only bottled water...which comes in plastic bottles...but hey, that's another issue altogether.

When we were in Kauai, a man told us that the reason land was so expensive on the island was because they had a limited, finite amount of real estate. But don't we all? We may exist on a larger land mass, but it is still finite. Our whole planet is, and our population is skyrocketing.

One thing we hope to accomplish through living in community is better stewardship of our environment. We hope to accomplish this first through sharing. It is a fact that one lawnmower produces less pollution into the air than ten lawnmowers. And one lawnmower takes up less landfill space once it breaks down than ten. Now imagine the impact on our air and in our landfills once we are sharing more than just our lawnmowers.

We also hope to impact environmental stewardship through the way we live. We are planning on establishing organic gardens and orchards in this community. We hope to be able to make these self-sustaining through composting for fertilization, and the use of honey bees for pollination. And we are also planning on raising our own animals for meat and eggs. It really can be an efficient way to live in more than one family is willing to share in the labor.

There is an additional environmental plus to raising much of your own food. You reduce your dependence on the grocery store. This translates to less gas being used for those once-frequent trips to the store. It also translates to less garbage being produced as your food comes with less packaging. Now your diet is consisting of fresh canned or frozen organic fruits and vegetables, fresh organic eggs, and fresh and frozen organic meats. Very little to go into the landfill, and you have the added peace of mind of knowing what is going into you. Now, we aren't planning on giving up the occasional trip to the store for some ice cream, yogurt, or soy sauce, along with other supplies, but look in your pantry and realize the amount of waste we can eliminate...and eat better quality food to boot!

The layout of the community is being planned with the intent of homes being built in a cluster, preserving the most open green spaces and wooded areas. This too, reduces the environmental impact. And it is just plain prettier to look at.

I hope this idea of community living is starting to come alive in your minds as new pieces are added to the puzzle. I will continue on later on the how living in community effects our personal resources. Have a blessed day and do something amazing!