Art Zen Village
So…back in Michigan once again. I will explain a little about our leaving
China since I somewhat dropped off of media when I arrived at an intentional
community there, and I’ve been slow in my coming back in other ways than
physically.
First of all…we weren’t ready to leave China, although we
weren’t convinced we would stay there long term either. We decided to leave the resort after 3 months
of negotiations and not feeling like we were making much progress on the
pool...cultural differences,
language challenges, and ungrounded visions.
When we left the resort, we went back to the intentional community we
had visited a couple of times, called Art Zen Village (https://artzenvillage.com/) and
decided to stay. Our friend Richard Bock…
a long term Harbin hot springs
(birthplace of some aquatic bodywork) resident and aquatic bodyworker was living there with his new Chinese wife, Ki Ki.
We had plans to build a pool there with him, had the details all worked
out, then long story short, the new government started investigating why there
were so many foreigners living here among other things, and so we decided to
leave.
Art Zen was a mix of Chinese individuals and families, and about 1/3 foreign residents and visiting teachers and students from Argentina, US, England, Iran, Greece, Poland, Romania and more. For 7 years or so it was about 4-6 members until 6 months ago when over 20 folks came in from another community, so there were growing pains, but willingness to work it out.
Piao Piao was the founder and owner of the land and
his vision was living in harmony and being happy. There was meditation, mountains,
and rivers to swim in, art and tea ceremonies, a pizza oven and a geodesic dome, music, workshops, dogs,
kittens, children, good people, good
conversations and beautiful connections.
For me, it was an opportunity to live in community, my first time besides
a bunch of young punks in a couple of houses in Detroit in the early 90's.
I liked it, I could see the challenges and frustrations and where I had
to work on finding balance, but I liked being in community. I enjoyed the people that lived there and the
visitors. Sometimes there were exchanges
with language and sometimes with smiles and actions. Overall, it was a nice place to be.
So…no more community in China, politics and governmental control dictated
that the “brain washing” foreigners weren't really welcome. A sad day...perhaps possibilities to return,
but most have moved on with their lives, including us. There is too much uncertainty to live
there. And the same language and
cultural differences didn’t disappear, although they were much softer and easier
there.
No comments:
Post a Comment