2008/2009 Events at Hummingbird Ranch

2009: Starts off with an Inspirational Bang!

May 21st-July 30: Hummingbird Living School launched its first Community Apprenticeship Certification Program (CACP), a ten week program serving the empowerment of young adults.

The curriculum is designed to inspire growth and understanding toward an experience of the sacred matrix of life.  As more informed and aware individuals, young adults will be prepared to take up the torch of leadership toward the manifestation of a healthy, sustainable, and fulfilling world for everyone.  We were thrilled to enjoy Clayton Barker as our first community apprentice, who has since become a Hummingbird Community Resident and is fully engaged in the community and the development of Hummingbird Living School's programs. 

May 31st-June7th: The Pachamama Alliance's Awakening the Dreamer, Be the Change Youth Facilitator Training.

Emerging from the Pachamama Alliance inspired by Bill and Lynne Twist, the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream is an international movement dedicated to birthing a new guiding principle for humanity in this time of crisis and transformation:   Creating an Environmentally Sustainable, Socially Just, and Spiritually Fulfilling Human Presence on our Planet.

Hummingbird was honored this year to co-host with the Pachamama Alliance the first ever Awakening the Dreamer Youth Facilitator Training.  A group of 23 youth completed the training and many are now involved in bringing the symposium to their communities.  An intitiative called Bus the Change inspired by the training participants, is now planning, networking and fundraising for a nine week training for next year at Hummingbird as preparation for hitting the road in a bus to bring a multi-dimensional offering to other youth in communities all over the country.  The training will include another Awakening the Dreamer Youth Facilitator training as well as a variety of trainings such as Permaculture for adults and children, Non-Violent Communication, Restorative Justice, Native American Vision Quest and a selection of several other inpiring teachings to compliment the offerings On The Road.

June 24th-28th: Vision Quest with Jorge (Red Tail Hawk) Arenivar

Hummingbird has become a center for regular Vision Quests, Inipi Ceremony (sweats), and Drum Making with the blessing of Jorge whom we are honored to have as teacher and guide.

July 23rd-July 26th: Water, Food, Children and Community Permaculture Course

August 1st-2nd: Non-Violent Communication Course

2008: Look what's growing at Hummingbird!

Beginning Stages: Working Together as Community!                 

   

Barbara Marx Hubbard Visits Hummingbird for an Evolutionary Leadership Gathering

Solstice Celebration

Fellowship for Intentional Communities Annual Board Meeting

Hummingbird Community was delighted to host the annual Board meeting of the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) from June 2nd to 4th. The meetings came at the end of the FIC's national conference, The Art of Community, held in Albuquerque. The FIC nurtures connections and cooperation among communitarians and their friends, providing publications such as Communities Magazine and the Communities Directory, referrals, support services, www.ic.org, and sharing opportunities for a wide range of intentional communities, cohousing groups, ecovillages, community networks, support organizations, and people seeking a home in community.

Several "Hummers" attended portions of the meetings and were pleased with the openness and inclusivity of the FIC Board.  The FIC members expressed their appreciation for the way in which they were supported and held during their visit, as well as the nurturing and deepening they experienced while here on the land and in the midst of our co-creative field.  It was a joy to connect with the core of the communities movement in North America, and an honor to have Hummingbird selected for the meeting, providing both an acknowledgment of us as a community and an opportunity to open up pathways of connection with this vital core group of the communities movement.

Ecovillage Design Education Comes to Hummingbird

On Monday, June 2nd, a tree was planted in the Hummingbird garden to celebrate Hummingbird's role in grounding the Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) course.  Over the last year, Hummers Rich Ruster and Robert Griffin, along with communitarians Zaida Amaral and Ma'ikwe Ludwig, have played vital roles in organizing and teaching the first EDE course in the United States, just completed on May 25th in Albuquerque.  The course is a project of the Global Ecovillage Network through its educational arm, Gaia Education and has been delivered about 25 times in 12 countries over the last three years.   The curriculum explores the many facets of sustainability though four main Dimensions: Social, Worldview, Economic, and Ecological.  Upon completion of the 36 day course, participants receive a certificate acknowledging participation in this Integrated Ecovillage Design Studio. (for more information, see www.ecovillagedesignsouthwest.org)
 
The tree planting ceremony included the representatives of EDE: Rich, Ma'ikwe, Robert,also representing Zaida; Katharine Roske as representative of the Hummingbird Living School; and about ten others including both Hummers and Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC)  members.  After words of offering, receiving and honoring from Rich, Ma'ikwe, Robert and Katharine, the ground was prepared with soil brought from many of the EDE participants' homes, and by Katharine with soil from Auroville and Sacred Waters from around the world.  Then, with the help of many hands, the apple tree was planted and watered.
 
This was a most auspicious time at Hummingbird, with both the FIC Board meeting and the EDE tree planting happening at the same time.  This coming together of these key community organizations here at Hummingbird feels like a turning point in the Intentional Communities movement; a synthesis point of the communities movement and the co-creative impulse of Global Family and Hummingbird Community.  What a time we live in! Robert Griffin

Dancing Colors Facility Festivities

One Year Anniversary:

 

House Concerts:

Dance Workshops:

Other Ceremonial Events:

Visit with Herbalist, Permaculturist, Mary Lou Singleton from Albuquerque, NM.

Many Community Members enjoyed a walking tour of the land as Mary Lou pointed out various useful and medicional  plant life.  It was an educational afternoon creating new relationships and appreciations for what the land here at Hummingbird offers us.

Holy Waters Ceremony with Hummingbird Steward, Ami Spangler

Held at our four-directions Medicine Wheel, Ami offered a healing ceremony with Holy Water from many sacred places around the world including the Ganges River in India, Mother Mary's Well in Ephesus, Turkey.  The ceremony was held with prayer and intentions to invoke personal affirmations.  The water's were kept within the earth for seven hours to fully activate. 

Monastic Retreat with Hummingbird Co-Founders Katharine Roske and John Zwerver

A weekend invitation offered participants an opportunity to deepen into stillness and draw upon the mystical understanding of the christ energy within, reintegrating the message of the historic Jesus with the sacred feminine of the Sophia energy.  The retreat honored monastic hours of the day to experience the deep rhythms of life evolving through prayers, reflections, meditation, poetry, ceremonies and rituals.  The time of our gathering was an auspicious period in the yearly calendar, celebrating the beginning of the harvest, Yom Kippur, and the Fall Equinox.

Check out our 2009 Current Program listings for exciting new events! 

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