The 5 Best Things I've Experienced While Living in an EcoVillage

It truly is difficult to narrow my ecovillage-living experiences down to the five best. However, I have attempted to do just that, painting in broad strokes a picture of the vast array of experiences afforded by living at an ecovillage, even if only for a short period of time. Hopefully, my top five best ecovillage experiences, drawn from my own life, can illuminate the wonderful world of intentional communities, showing the diverse range of activities and benefits of the more natural way of life.

5 - Shoveling Humanure

Humanure is exactly what it sounds like - "human" and "manure" (see "There's Gold in Your Poop"). Properly cured, humanure does not smell nearly as atrocious as one might assume and is, actually, rather mild in odor. Shoveling humanure was a great experience because it involved making use of poop. Most people currently alive have probably not made valuable use of their poop, but I have.

Furthermore, there is something about shoveling shit that allows you to be positive about the experience, especially when doing it with a friend, as I did. Essentially, most all the time, you can claim you've done a worse job than anyone else, theoretically. Although, in practice, shoveling shit was not nearly as loathsome as one might assume.

4 - Building My Own Room

While living at an intentional community, I actually built my own bedroom. I thought about shelving as I was manufacturing my walls from recycled materials, used bamboo to hang clothes on in my closet, created my own personal feng-shui utilizing artistic pieces that would be made by myself and others that would follow and even experimented with natural air conditioning and storage of warmth using thermal mass. It was far from perfect, but there is a distinct feeling about living in a space you personally created - a wonderful feeling. Also, the view was magnificent, as views as intentional communities tend to be.

3 - Full Moon Celebrations and Drum Circles