Urban EcoVillage Explores Slow Life
By Cecile Andrews
Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted here by permission.

Last summer, a small group of people in my North Seattle neighborhood -- the Phinney Neighborhood -- met every Tuesday night and walked together. We saw and heard things we'd rarely encountered on our own.

For instance, one evening we passed a house where four guys were gathered on the porch playing Blue Grass music. We stopped and listened, applauding when they were done. "Thanks, " they replied. "Where did your group come from? Down from the tavern up the street?"

"No," we told them, "We're from the Phinney EcoVillage."

After we explained what an ecovillage was, one of the guys suggested that maybe they could be our musical group -- "The EcoVillage People!"

Our summer walks ended as our Seattle days became dark and rainy, but we continue to gather to develop the Phinney EcoVillage.

EcoVillages are spreading around the world, and most of them are rural intentional communities focusing on sustainability. Sometimes we call our efforts ecovillage "lite" because we're not as elaborate as many of these groups are. In a way, we're promoting "unintentional" community. Few of us want to leave our urban neighborhood, but we still want to have more community and sustainability in our lives.

Our focus is "the slow life." Our theme is "Simpler, Slower, and Smaller," but we're concentrating on "the slow life" as part of the Take Back Your Time Campaign (www.timeday.org). We want to be part of the Slow Life movement that is spreading around the world, particularly in Italy and Japan. (Take a look at In Praise of Slowness, by Carl Honore.)

The wonderful thing about the Slow Life concept is that it gets people thinking. It's like using a new lens through which we view our lives -- for instance, what is a "slow family," or a "slow neighborhood?" People are able to develop a new vision of what the "good life" is all about.

Every month, Phinney EcoVillage members meet to discuss what this concept means. We've talked about "Slow Talk," Slow Work," "Slow Holidays," and this quarter we're focusing on "Slow Health," "Slow Kids," and "Slow Aging." We don't have outside speakers because we realize it's something that we already know -- we just need to take the time to look within and talk with each other.

There's always a central theme: living in a way that allows us to give more attention and appreciation to our lives. It means having experiences with more aliveness and depth, relationships with more intimacy and commitment. You try to live more in harmony with nature's pace.

There's no list of "Ten Ways to Slow Down." It's about asking yourself what's important and what matters and committing to living fully. Or, as Thoreau said, "And not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

About The Author

Cecile is the author of The Circle of Simplicity, a founding member of the Phinney EcoVillage (www.phinneyecovillage.net) and directs The Simplicity Circles Project for Seeds of Simplicity.

E-Mail: cecile@simplicitycircles.com
Web Site: The Circle Of Simplicity