Tags
activism, chicken night, hippies, living the solution, occupy, occupy bus tour, occupy farm, occupy farms, occupy wall street, peace village, woodstock
From the farm we took a field trip to peace village and chicken night. Peace village is a retreat center in the Catskill mountains in upstate Ny, here’s their link below
Chicken night is a potluck at the house of John and Astrid near Woodstock, they cook the chicken, you bring the rest.
So we started out early in the morning, well not that early, around 9am, but still early for us to be up and out. It was about an hour and a half two hours to peace village. We went their to volunteer for the day. We got there around 11AM or so and went right to work. Collette showed us what we needed to do and handed out our supplies, which consisted of a bucket, a shovel, a pair of gloves. We were going to be weeding.
Right from arriving I had a feeling of calm, like I was watching Mr. Rogers neighborhood as a kid. A peaceful feeling. Collette showed us the spots we would be weeding. The 3 rocks in front of the pond, then the peace park.
We all started weeding at the 3 rocks and the 3 of us talked. Collette came to check on us and we talked to her as well, asked her questions about the peace village and how she ended up there.
The peace village started in 1999, the place used to be a resort where people would come up for the weekend or vacation all year round, then it closed down and was empty for 5 years when the founders bought it at auction. They have retreats there every weekend, and its all by donation, they believed you should not have to pay for spirituality. They have envelopes and donation boxes in a few spots around the property and if you want to you can donate because they do need money to run things but there is no pressure to have to pay a certain amount.
All the people who live there and work there are volunteers and the people who live there have an intentional community, they all are working towards the same vision and goal and they all help with all the jobs that need to be done. We learned their community is celibate so each person can focus more on their personal spirituality and connection with God without having the distraction of lust. Every day they have meditation,
At 1pm we went to the dining room for lunch. Only the most spiritual, the yogis are allowed to cook. They want only the best energy being put into the food everyone is eating. The lunch was awesome and I was hungry. It was so nice to be able to volunteer but at the same time get taken care of so well in the way of good food and good vibes.
The afternoon we spent weeding peace park. Peace park is all rocks with rock paths and anyone can create anything out of the rocks they wanted, move things around add to. There were stacks of slate on the sides and you can take a piece and add it where you wish. We picked weeds then when we were done we added a path.
Before we left we walked the Labyrinth, which used to be a shooting range at the time it was a resort. They wanted to change the energy of that place so they put in a Labyrinth, then we walked to reflection pond.
Next we were on our way to Chicken night about an hour away from peace village. A hundred hippies from the 60’s crowed in the small colorful house and scattered all over the outside, music upstairs in the back building. People eating, dancing, playing, talking, the energy was great, the people were great and I thought how much we need them for helping to create a better world. They had created that world in their community of Woodstock, now we need their help for the rest of the world.
In one day I got to see 2 intentional communities. Both pieces of the solution we need for the rest of the world.
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