Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Living in cohousing

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Jenny cook put together a nice summary about some of the differnces between
the building process and the living process of cohousing.  I would just add
that one of the primary changes is in the permance of the decisions you
make. In the building process, you make a lot of more or less permanent
decisions. In the living together process rarely is any decision ever
permanent. It takes a mind switch to let go of the fears and tenacity which
came with your building decisions and to get much softer and experimental.
You will and should expect to change several decisions, several times once
you live together. It is my experience that groups that approach living
together as a big experiment, with an open ended attitude of, lets try this
out, we can always change it later, tend to find more happiness together.
But this is a very different attitude than you had when you were building
things and people have to be coached to make the switch.  The color of the
shingles on the commonhouse roof will be a decision that lasts 25 years,
what time dinner is might last a couple of months as you start to explore
what works. 


Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
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