Mama Dharma

Mama Dharma: "Friday, June 29, 2007"
The Mommune Manifesto

I have had a thought, an idea, a dream that has gone off like a cannon in my head today, and won't leave me alone, and I would like to share it with you.

The Mommune.

I have a dream.

I have a dream of a place where "it takes a village" is real and not a nice-sounding theory.

I want a place where I can truly live my values of conscious, sustainable living. A place on the land, yet close enough to a city to allow for occasional urban day-trips. A place where single mothers could pool their resources to create a true village of sisterhood and support. We would help each other raise our kids, we would share babysitting so that we could take much-needed breaks for ourselves--to meditate, write, paint, do yoga, or just sit under a tree and be.

We would create the conditions of economic self-sufficiency so that no one would have to work long hours at a job that did not nourish their souls because they felt trapped, without choices. We would not have to kill ourselves working to try to make ends meet after childcare and mortgages or rent sucked it all away. We would not have to miss out on huge swathes of our children's lives because we were too busy working to sustain some kind of artificial cultural construct that says that everyone should live in these discrete economic units called houses that literally keep us apart from one another, and that we should pay someone else to watch our children even though it breaks our hearts when we drop them off all day, five days a week, everyone spinning in their own individual orbits trying to keep it all together even though it just doesn't feel right.

We could collectively educate our kids in a wonderful kind of free school. We would teach our kids about nonviolent communication and we would teach them how to think for themselves and to love themselves unconditionally and to care for the earth and each other. We would use gentle discipline and most of all we would heal ourselves so that we could teach primarily by our own authentic example.

Together we would cook and we would clean and wash and maintain the land and these tasks would not be burdensome or overwhelming because we would all just have a little bit to do, just our small share, our contribution to the collective effort.

We would all bring our own unique skills and talents into the mix and we would all have the opportunity to constantly teach and learn from one another. With our remarkable pooled skill set, we could create a small business or businesses that would enable us to fund our crazy and beautiful venture in a sustainable way.

The Mommune would bring together the best of intentional/collective living without any strange, scary charismatic leaders or hierarchical, cult-like formations. The Mommune would be both utopian and utterly grounded.

Heck, even nuclear "intact" families could join us on the Mommune, although the community's primary purpose would be to be a network of emotional, financial, and creative support for single mothers.

Maybe this is a crazy pipe dream, but it is delicious to let myself dream in this way. I feel like I and others really could dream The Mommune into reality. All it takes is enough of us to believe in this dream wholeheartedly. There is no such thing as an impossible dream.

I am just putting it out there, and delighting in the infinite possibilities that unfurl before me when I dare to dream outside the box.