Our Story

All of Nemeton is our expression of spiritual freedom; a place where we live in sanctuary; a place where none but ourselves define who we are.  Living in Sanctuary is a state of mind but also a perspective as we sort out the wounds, joys and meaning of our lives.  

 The quest began by an intuitive inspiration that we wanted to live with llamas and remove ourselves from the pace of city living.  As much as we love Charlotte and still consider it home in many ways, we knew it was time to make a leap into the unknown and test ourselves and our stage of life.

In 1999 we purchased a very private and isolated little valley in the mountains of Virginia.  It had taken us 18 months of travel in NC, SC, TN, VA and GA seeking all the factors that would contribute to the presence and atmosphere we envisioned.  Privacy, water sources, old trees, protected from encroachment on all sides.  That was a pretty tall order but once we found it, we set about building a facility that would accomodate us spiritually, as well as give us a retirement haven.

Much to our chagrin, while still working on the actual preparation to make Nemeton habitable, Ol Buzzard had a massive heart attack.  That was a wake-up and speed-up call.  I sincerely feel that if Nemeton had not been under construction, the idea would have been abandoned as impractical.  But, the door was open and it was a matter of putting a few financial arrangements in order and just jumping into the experience.  

There is an old poem, that sort of fits the circumstances at the time:

Come to the edge.

I can't I am afraid.

COME to the edge!

I can't I might fall.

COME to the edge!!

They came, 

he pushed them

and they flew

Apollinaro

 

Many people have asked how one can adjust to living a contemplative and meditative life, asking if we are lonely.  Of course, we cherish interaction with others but we are not dependent upon it.  As we delved deeper and deeper into self-reliance and learned some of the basic skills of living in an environment we were unfamiliar with; it has been a challenge and more rewarding than we expected.  Coming from the city, we were under the illusion that one could hire services but the people in the area are mostly self-employed so asking them to come and do your work is really not realistic.  So,  one starts out with plans that you have to modify and a long process of accumulating tools needed to accomplish the jobs. Plus you learn as you go; design build and stand back and laugh at your own mistakes.

Our first project was to build a bridge to enter the front trail.  There was an old telephone pole abandoned when we installed new service lines so we were able to drag it to the top of the hill, cut it into two parts and roll them down the hill.  Fortunately, they landed close enough to where we wanted them that with a great deal of effort, we laid them down as the underpinnings for the footbridge.  Then, putting on planks wasn't that difficult.  Later, when we added the John Deere Gator, we discovered that it was too narrow so we had to lay wider planks on top of the others so that we could drive the Gator over to the trail.  We have improved our building skills and later built a decent bridge with handrails but we never drive the Gator in that area so it is just a nice picturesque footbridge.  The spring project for 2008 is what we call the Bridge to Nowhere as our intent is to create a continuous loop trail.  Plans were thwarted last year when a very large tree fell and blocked the new addition to the trail. The new Bridge to Nowhere will be an approach from the other end and eventually we will encounter that tree and have to cut it up to complete the trail. 

 The first three years we didn't have the Gator so we carried all our materials and tools up the trail by ourselves.  Our elevation here at the barn is 2,700 ft. and the top of the trail is 3400 ft. (measured for us by a friend with a GPS.)  We use a chipper to grind up limbs and small stuff and used the chips on the trail.  Anything that wouldn't fit into the chipper we carried back down to the firepit and burned or stacked by the trail and used it later for bonfires here at the barn.  Much to our chagrin, one of the things we learned is that raking the trail was a mistake.  It takes 100 years to compost 1" of topsoil and by raking, it caused erosion.  We have relocated the trail several times to compensate for the damage but now we don't rake it at all.  The forest is a constantly changing place and trees seem to commit suicide from time to time so no matter whether we have cleared the trail. the next year we more or less start over again.  Having the Gator has been a big improvement but we refer to our work projects as our efforts to "chop wood and carry water" - doing the focused attention on the little day to day matters.  It is gratifying and satisfying work - so much so that even if there were local help available, we wouldn't want anybody but ourselves to work on the trails.  It sort of intensifies and magnifies the connection one begins to feel when you are submerged in the natural work. 

This page is a work in progress simply because it is difficult to expose oneself for the judgement of others without some fear of attack by those who have little comprehension and feel threatened by things they don't understand.  Every time that I sit at the keyboard, I try to picture who might read this, what their life experience might be and whether or not it is meaningful to anybody but ourselves. 

Each person makes their own choices; sets their own values and enters into a lifetime to play out that perception.  Whether or not others are truly influenced or interested in making major shifts in the cultural norm, is highly debateable.  Traditional thinkers immitate the ancestors - which leads to stagnation and decay.  Modern thinkers envision changes without regard for long term effects.  What is meaningful and creative thinking is somewhere between those two worlds - where we creatively form the future.  We cannot transform ourselves into 21st century thinking with 19th century minds.  Mankinds past is NOT reflective of his potential.  

"Don't let those of limited vision cheapen 

the miralce you are living or diminish your

sense of value with their abstractions.

The potential you embody is

unprecedented."

From Return of the Bird Tribes

The lifestyle we have chosen and are living out can be called the “Contemplatives” – those who are more inward looking by nature. The contemporary world has no place for them but they can withdraw and create spacious stillness; to anchor the frequency of the new consciousness on this planet.  It is only to generate awareness through activities of daily life, through interaction with others, as well as to just Be. Just Be conscious; Just Be aware, Just Be.

            So, what may seem insignificant holds profound meaning to those who invest and ingest the depth of nature and the embrace of the natural energy and power around us.  We really didn’t realize this would be the result when we started into this almost 10 years ago.  There was no model, nobody who really could tell us how to create the objective.  It grows and evolves each day.  Those who have enriched us with their visits, friendship and wisdom have added more and more to the conditional resonance that is constantly arising.  This affects the world much more deeply than is visible on the surface.