Maintaining a Refuge for Dreamers
by Buffy Aakaash

From a visionary's seed planted three years ago and the financial resources to nurture that seed, Zuni Mountain Sanctuary has grown into a place of retreat and refuge for people all over the world. This is a rare and special circumstance, cause for repeated celebration, for oftentimes there is great vision among us without the financial means to support it; and somewhere in the seemingly monumental task of "FUNDRAISING," vision becomes muddled and distorted, the magic bubble in our mind's eye bursts. Worst of all, our relationship with the big "M" - $ - is tainted, sometimes hopelessly as we return to a "system" that will nurture us if we focus on "getting by" rather than on our dreams.

Recently, something hadn't been sitting right with me about how we were evolving in our pursuit of "self-sustainability." Then it popped into my head. I blurted out in the the middle of our "business meeting," - "We are not a business." Sigh of relief. Next question - If we are not a business, then where does our daily bread come from, since the "system" has taught us that to "make money" we must "do business"? To do business, we must have product, and to have product we must become cogs in a product-making machine.

So, from a sudden outburst of creative energy we created a machine, so we wouldn't have to think about money and "failures" and other natural processes that keep art alive. Since we are a community of dreamers, the machine thankfully exploded this past year... in my mind, anyway. But all the springs and shattered machine parts did not lay strewn about, polluting the land and our minds. Instead, as the skilled wielders of magic we are known to be, we began crafting and creating from the wreckage. We began to transform "product" back into process... spinning, weaving, knitting and crocheting... Archives on looms... art on paper. Somewhere this process links us back to our true natures; of this, I am certain.

The process of healing rekindled, we face our fears. As a community with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly expenses, there remains a lot of fear about the simplicity of letting process unfold vision. During our recent "financial crisis," the swift and concerned response from the wider community was enlightening and reaffirming to me as a dreamer. So, we begin to heal our relationship with money, and respect it as an energy no less deserving than the natural forces we embrace around us. When I look at our bank account and fear "poverty," I will better remember to look around at the wealth of beauty and abundance in which we live, which includes this land and the dreamers that dream this land.

So, thanks to the dreamers that make this the place it is and the place it is becoming. All the time you have put into "sanctuary," all the green energy, all the countless hours and grunt work spent to keep this place alive, ever-expanding, remember, it's all for you. The living spaces we are now building for Stewards may someday be yours to live in or visit, as Stewards - past, present and future - expand the community out from its center. How do you see Juniper House in five years? Ten years? A visitor space? Home to four new Stewards? Even if the life of Stewardship, does not draw you now, as fellow-dreamers, the future of this sanctuary is partly yours to decide. So remember this... As you work in the garden here, as you put the finishing touches on buildings, as you send us financial contributions so that we may better focus, and as you participate in the dreamplay that forms community, remember... remember there's joy in the making of a refuge for dreamers. The money will follow.