Brand new rabbits Javier, Christina, Emma, Max, and, of course, Paloma.

  

Christina visited Dancing Rabbit in July 2015 to check us out. Apparently she liked it, since she then brought her family along for the October visitor session, and they are now residents! Here she shares about her first visitor session...

Some highlights from my 2015 visitor session at Dancing Rabbit:

getting covered in a sand and mud and straw mixture that would soon make the walls of a new home

floating and swimming and cooling off and relaxing and watching birds and thinking in the swimming pond

talking to people whose life stories and realizations sound a lot like mine

hanging out with people 20 years older than I am and with people 20 years younger than I am and with many in between

observing kids play with kids they’ve known their whole lives

observing kids play with kids they’d just met

observing kids play with non-parent adults in their lives

listening to the quiet crackle of a rocket stove, and to soft music playing on a rigged-up speaker, while chopping just-picked carrots and kale and feeling the breeze through the open walls of a kitchen built by hand and looking out over an unobstructed view of rolling hills covered with waving grasses and trees

shoveling rocks for two hours to help fill a new foundation

discussing why I eat meat with vegetarians and vegans and feeling no judgement on either end

playing word games and card games and laughing so much I cried

listening to frogs croaking back and forth through the night

watching the dark clouds of a flash thunderstorm roll in over the hills

walking out on a freshly mowed path by myself and not seeing a single other person

helping to move a chicken coop down a hill and through two gates

seeing hundreds and hundreds of native prairie wildflowers blowing in the wind

knowing that I was not using gallons of gas or gallons of water or burning coal or natural gases just to get through the basic routine of a day

talking to people who have left behind many of the conveniences and amenities of modern life to live a life that feels right to them

taking long walks to think through all the new information and knowledge I’d gained, only to end up with more questions

realizing that there isn’t only one way to be ecological or sustainable or to live your life

waking up to all that is wrong with conventional society and deciding to move towards a path that will most likely alter the rest of my life
 

BREAKING NEWS! Our first visitor session, starting April 18th, was completely filled, but some folks had to bow out so we now have just a couple spots available. Get in touch soon to apply!

The three remaining visitor sessions for 2016 are also filling up quickly– our special women-only May session has only 5 slots left, and July has 7 – so request an application soon so you don't miss the fun!
 

Christina previously lived in New Hampshire with her husband and two kids. She is an English teacher who spends her free time playing tag, working in the garden, and dirtying pots and pans in the kitchen. Inspired to look for answers to the many questions she had about life and why people live it the way they do, she attended the DR visitor program on her own in July, and returned with her family in October. They are now residents of Dancing Rabbit.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community and nonprofit outside Rutledge, in northeast Missouri, focused on demonstrating sustainable living possibilities. Find out more about us by visiting our website, reading our blog, or emailing us.