Land and Legacy

It’s been six months since my last blog. I’ve been very busy in the busy world doing lots of busy, busy things.

However…it’s the end of the year – and almost at the start of another one – that we often allow time to slow down, take stock and reflect on what has been and what may be.

For me, this January 1st, I will do the opposite of what I was doing on January 2005. I will be driving to Manhattan, rather than away from it. That was the day I moved to Asheville from NYC.

I’m off for a few days to see a couple of clients and visit old friends.

But, when I return, the year promises some changes in my life because of the changes I made in my life recently.


I earned my real estate license, and I’ve spent the last several months immersing myself in all the available opportunities to learn about the market. I’ve also finally got serious about looking after my investments and paying attention to the financial market. I’ve gotten a thorough education on just have closely those two are related. I think we all have.

I’ve always had an interest in this area of life –now, I have an opportunity to hone in on them and use the knowledge to help create the life that I want for myself.

If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know I’ve had a keen interest in gardening and sustainability – mostly since my short stint in Byron Bay, Australia. Real estate is, after all, primarily about land – who owns it, controls it, uses it, improves it, and wastes it. It is natural that I am interested and involved.

I guess I became intensely interested when I discovered that Asheville has an Eco-steward certification. I love this! Agents who go through this 36-hour program are in a position to advise clients toward better, more sustainable and energy efficient homes. Perfect for me, because I sometimes think I’m a perpetual student – I love going to classes and learning. I need the structure (I’m a triple Pisces - need I say more?) and I appreciate the discipline.

When I took the Asheville Board of Realtors Orientation a short while back, I was thrilled with my choice of getting my real estate license when the instructor asked me to read aloud the Preamble to the Code of Ethics for the National Association of Realtors:

“Under all is the land. Upon its wise utilization and widely allocated ownership depend the survival and growth of free institutions and of our civilization. REALTORS¨ should recognize that the interests of the nation and its citizens require the highest and best use of the land and the widest distribution of land ownership. They require the creation of adequate housing, the building of functioning cities, the development of productive industries and farms, and the preservation of a healthful environment.”

I learned from my grandparents – small farmers in the southeast – that when you own your land (whether we can really “own” land is another blog for another day), you are your own person. You can feed yourself and shelter yourself. You can not only survive but live a more healthy, both physically and spiritually, in world of nature and earth.

The land was here before us, and will be here long afterward. We must respect it and protect it. And return, we are bountifully rewarded. If not – well, we reap what we sow.

May the New Year bring us all love, peace, respect, and joy.

Following My Lead

Asheville. Lot’s of cool stuff happening in this little progressive, mountain town.

The first signs of spring are all around. The surest is the Organic Growers School held every year at the Blue Mountain Appalachian Community College in Flat Rock. I felt the excitement surging through my bloodstream as I worked my way through the crowds and classes of farmers, gardeners and wanna-bes (like me) yesterday. This is where I strike up conversations with strangers as I sip coffee at breaks or while waiting on my friend Mary, who attended for the second time with me. I met a guy who has 20 acres near Boone and primarily produces berries for sale. I got several good tips from him for my 3 blueberry bushes. A woman told me about how she and her husband bought their farm over 12 years ago while still living in Charlotte. A couple of years ago she had enough of the city life and moved there full time while her husband drives up on weekends from his job. She said her grandchildren beg for turns to come stay weeks at a time. She calls her place the anti-Disney – no TV, gameboys, and cell phones, but rather plenty of live animals and fun chores they love to do. When actually given a choice from an over saturated media/consumer lifestyle, even children instinctively know that something truly important is missing from their lives and reach for it when given the opportunity.

I’ve noticed recently that the leadership aspect of myself has been coming to the fore. I’ve never considered myself much of a leader before, usually preferring to follow someone else’s vision when it matched my own.

As you know, I moved here from NYC so that I could be closer to the land. I bought my house and small lot and have worked at enriching my soil, growing veggies, fruit trees and shrubs. I had no concerns about living in close proximity to my neighbors in West Asheville because after NYC and apartment living, it seemed quite spacious. But I’ve known from the beginning that it wouldn’t be enough. I want land. And there are many women in Asheville who want the same thing. In fact, Mary and I noted that well over half the attendees at the Organic Growers School were women. One class I took – How to obtain Credit for your farm – all but one of the self-identified “want to farm” people were women.

A couple of weeks ago I invited two women I know who are interested in owning and farming land to dinner. They did not know each other. I had a good feeling about them both – or as we might say here is Asheville, they both had good energy for me. They instantly bonded, having Cleveland, Ohio as their connection. Our purpose: to discuss the possibility of creating an intentional community together. We plan, over the summer, to invite another 3 or 4 women who share our vision to join us and then start searching for land within 30 minutes of Asheville. Our goal is to buy it within two years. Over the next several months we plan on getting together for projects and activities so that we become more acquainted and comfortable with each other. We hope to buy about 30+ acres so that we can have about 5 acres each and some shared land – preferably with a stream, creek and/or pond with it. I’m very excited to have partners who share my vision and are willing to work together to make it happen.

My first memory about community living came to me as a senior in high school when I wrote a paper about Communal Living (I still have it too – I didn’t make a very good grade). I wish I could remember why I chose the topic. Was it because the teacher gave us a list to choose from or did I pull that out somewhere from the headlines? It was after all 1971 and I would have been influenced by the decade of the 60’s. Perhaps it stems from some deep psychotically need to be associated with counter culture of some type. I have a love/hate relationship with mainstream: I want to “fit” in, but I often at conflict of what mainstream represents – which is usually centered around money, what you have and don’t have. Or perhaps I instinctively knew early in life that I want to live a more connected life with others – in community, with shared vision.

Recently, I joined the board of the Bountiful Cities Project. It’s a non profit centered around the idea of creating community spaces on urban land, growing food in abundance and fostering a learning environment for social justice and sustainability. Our website is http://www.bountifulcitiesproject.org and if you want some recent pr about us, I refer you to
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770225012.
I wrote the press release and was pleased that A C-T printed verbatim. I’ve written a lot of pr before, some while I was in New York City, and seen my words printed, but this one brought more joy to me than the business writing that I have done over the years. It is the idea of community and urban gardens that I am enthusiastic about. I think this group is poised for some tremendous growth and I’m happy to offer my years of experience in advertising, marketing, and pr to a nonprofit that I can feel passionate about.

Another sign of my leadership side taking hold is that I have been trying to organize our neighborhood to deal with the beautiful piece of land in our neighborhood, and at the end of my backyard. Mary and I tried to purchase it late last year but were unsuccessful. I held a meeting at my house and invited the City of Asheville Neighborhood Coordinator to speak to us. We invited the potential buyer of the land to come to, but he declined. The coordinator offered some alternatives of how what we could do, but so far, it seems as if it’s too much work for them. I’m sure if I wanted to do all the work, they would support it. I’m in the process of trying to organize another meeting specifically with the potential buyer. I’m not sure how much I want to proceed if all my neighbors want is for me to do the work.

According to Diana Leafe Christian, author of “Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovilages and Intentional Communities,” a leader must certainly have vision – without which nothing will happen. Now that I’ve been in Asheville two years, I am trying to fine-tune the lens on my vision glasses. It is becoming clearer to me and I am taking the steps in the right directions. As with all our hopes, plans, and intentions, I believe we must also be adaptable because life is as fluid as the river and takes unexpected twist and turns. As Heraclites first notes around 500 BCE “You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.” And as Darwin REALLY said:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” One thing I do know about myself – I am responsive to change. I am a Pisces – as mutable and changeable as the water the fish swim in.