Regenesis notes

From DmesWiki

Notes from Diamond Mountain Planning Session 4/12/05-4/13/05

Pupose for this Session

To weave spirituality, ethics, and care for this place into an appropriate container for developing this land

In a way that grows our understanding, capability, and commitment with regard to • Who this land is, • Who it invites us to be, and • The relationship we are being called into

So that our actions can increasingly honor the land and arise more and more in harmony with our spiritual practice.

Potential for Relationship to Place

The land at Diamond Mountain is inherently diverse. Because of its geological history, layers of sediment and rock were deposited and then uplifted, folding and splitting to leave behind a varied terrain with numerous pockets of different soils and microclimates. This diversity of landform, soils, and microclimate once supported a rich community of grasslands and oak forest, with all of its associated plant, fungal, and animal species. Over long periods of time, indigenous people adapted their culture and lifeways to nurture and be nurtured by this rich biotic community, achieving a dynamic balance with place.

This balance was radically disrupted in the latter part of the 19th century—with the introduction of the railroad that enabled intensive cattle raising, and with the sudden need for large quantities of firewood to supply a nearby steam powered quarry and Fort Bowie. These disruptions initiated a downward spiral of desertification from which the land has never recovered.

As Diamond Mountain is developed, the rapid infusion of capital (financial, material, and human) into this landscape carries with it the potential to initiate processes of regeneration and healing for the land and for all who come here. It also carries the potential to continue the degradation and destruction of the last century and a half. The difference will lie in the community’s vision and will, its ability to listen to and learn from the land, and its willingness to engage in regenerative planning, construction, and ongoing patterns of use with regard to this site. In other words, Diamond Mountain will need to engage in a lifelong learning and teaching process about how to live in harmony with place. Diamond Mountain will change and be changed by its relationship to this land.

Happily, the emerging culture of the Diamond Mountain community is predisposed to act regeneratively. The land is a living being, one that has been wounded and suffers. It is the mother of the community. Healing this land, entering into a relationship of respect and caring and humble appreciation, is completely consistent with the values and spiritual practice of the community, and is an expression of practice and service in the world. In turn, she will nurture the people who come here, through the springs and woodlands and animals who return. And through the softening of climate and living conditions that result from restoring a vibrant and healthy living system in the drylands of the southwest.

As planning proceeds, it will be important to understand that much of the Diamond Mountain site, especially where the main public areas have begun to take shape, lies at the center of a vortex, or concentration and dispersion pattern within the overall land form. Flows at this center will tend to be highly concentrated and potentially destructive. These flows could include flooding from runoff, fire, wind, cold air drainage, wild life traffic patterns, etc. All of these things will need to be taken into account in describing an appropriate pattern of settlement for the land.

Some Guiding Concepts for Development

• Serve, through what we create here, the health and unfolding potential of the land, the people, and spirit. At least three streams of thinking need to be integrated into every aspect of how Diamond Mountain is planned and created. 1.) The land needs to be healed and its full potential for life and abundance enabled. 2.) The people need to be sheltered in a peaceful and relatively easy to maintain environment that allows them to focus on the inner work they come here to do. 3.) And the spirit and the values of the community need to be reflected in the harmony and beauty with which everything is done.

• Create a “story” that enables each participant to understand how to be in relationship to this place and therefore how to contribute to realizing the potential of the whole. The site plan, communications with neighbors and with the county, orientation of students and visitors to the site—all these need to reflect a coherent and evolving understanding of who this place is and what it is becoming.

• Charter a core team to act as stewards for the essence, the values, and the potential of this project. As a project of this scope proceeds, the original intention can easily get lost in the details and complexities of working through a planning and development process. A core team is charged with bringing a whole mind and reflecting all of the key perspectives that need to be present to ensure that the project lives up to its potential, even as the circumstances surrounding it are continually changing. The core team would reflect on and provide guidance to the work of a planning team, a land restoration team, a community relations team, etc.

A Proposed Path Forward

1. Confirm the community’s commitment to engage in a holistic and participatory planning process—in particular speak to members of the planning group, the board, and potential core group members.

2. Solicit a proposal that lays out the stages of the planning process and the consulting that will be required.

3. Identify and solicit funding to cover the costs of planning.