Cohousing-L Mailing List: The Fires & Other Equally Disturbing Trials & Tribulations

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Hello all —

When I attended the CohoUS National Cohousing Conference in Portland in 2019 I 
visited many of the cohousing communities in the Portland area.  Really well 
organized bus trips (thank you Neil Planchon) to see some very new and some 
very well established coho communities.  Ditto when I was in Seattle, 
Washington and the East Bay area in California, also at CohoUS conferences.  
(Plus Raines Cohen organized a personal tour for me to see some other 
collaborative communities in the East Bay area,)

I’m thinking of you.

How are you faring amid fires, the pandemic and other equally difficult, 
confronting issues?  How you are coping keeping your community safe and 
healthy? The smoke and ash alone must be disturbing  All of us could benefit 
from hearing what you are doing.   For those of you close to the fires I’m sure 
you have an evacuation plan — will you share it w/ us?  Have any of you had to 
evacuate?

While I cannot volunteer on the ground, I can be a good listener and hopefully, 
support you in other ways.  I’ve already donated to the California Fire 
Foundation, a fund sponsored by explore.org to which I subscribe.  
Are there other funds for fighting these fires, helping w/ evacuees or other 
needs in your area I/we should know about?   What other ways do you need 
support?

Added to all of what’s going on out West and in the rest of the country, today 
is the 19th Anniversary of 9/11.  I found myself weeping this morning when Mika 
Brzezinski on Morning Joe read out the time line of the attacks on The Twin 
Towers, the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.  

Sometimes, when it’s all too much … I find peace with and gratitude for my 
neighbors in my cohousing community in Washington, DC (another kind of ground 
zero).

During these trying times, I’m grateful to live in cohousing (thank you Katie, 
Chuck and all who labor to bring cohousing to light).

In a world that’s always just beginning, these times are made for us.  What 
will we do?

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Member, Board of Directors
Mid Atlantic Cohousing
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
202.546.4654

It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

–Wendell Berry, “Our Real Work”

NOTE: Please add my new email address to your CONTACTS list.   I’m 
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