Livable Future Project

Vision for the Livable Future Project

This is how I envision the Livable Future Project.

My Vision for 2006

By Patricia Mikkelson LivableFuture@yahoo.com 2414 Blackberry Lane, Fayetteville, AR 72703

The following story is a way of sharing what I am envisioning will happen in 2006. I am writing it as if it has already happened. Because of research and experience, I have found that this technique is very powerful. I like to pray before I write so that I can be a co-creator with God. Since Jesus is my main teacher and source of spiritual inspiration, I connect with him, also. This way of writing as if something has already happened in a story-telling mode can also be done spontaneously with friends. Although New Year's eve is a great time to utilize this, I plan to do more of this imagining type of prayer every day throughout the year as I gain new insights as to how to manifest my goal. I also plan to keep a gratitude journal so I can focus on what has manifested. If you do this in person with others, I suggest that the listeners act as if this has already happened, and treat you with appreciation, gratitude and honor.

I have learned that along with every thought is a picture of what is going to happen. For example, if I say to myself, "I don't think I am going to be able to pay that bill," I also start seeing myself making excuses or imagining that I am feeling guilty. Now what I do is if I notice I am worrying, I change the picture. I simply imagine myself paying the bill happily and feeling so good about it. I don't even have to change the thought--which can actually seem kind of fake. I want to encourage you to use imaginative prayer all the time--as Paul says in one of his letters, "take every thought captive." I hope this can help you.

I want to share with you what is real about this story. I do have a community center, a neighborhood, and a small house to live in. I am living in Fayetteville 5 days a week so that I can focus on these dreams, and I am part owner of 27 acres of land where we envision creating a land trust and community. There is space in the community building, as well as rentals that come up from time to time so that someone could live here. Thanks for reading this! And also, I do ask our Creator to adjust this vision according to the highest good of all.

The Vision: I am so excited to share with you all the things that have happened in the past year, 2006. My vision of having a sustainable neighborhood where everyone has their own place, yet finds it beneficial to cooperate extensively, has finally come true. Here is how it happened.

The first step was to get the Community Center fixed up, with a large kitchen, hot and cold running water, green house, and outdoor summer kitchen, and a meeting/learning center space. A community bathhouse which included a composting toilet, sauna, showers, large bathtub, a sink for washing dishes, and washer/dryer (with a large clothesline outside) was also constructed. This is making life much more pleasant for those who want to live simply in small houses. It is very similar to the co-housing concept, where people have smaller dwellings because they have access to a larger kitchen and other community owned things.

It was so wonderful because very quickly I was able to get my vision written down in such a way that a generous person wanted to pay me my living expenses plus expenses for the Livable Future Project. In this way I was able to focus on the project as well as nurture my family. I felt sad to quit all my jobs--some of the people I cleaned or organized for I had been working for 8 years--but I needed to follow my heart and live my vision.

The neighborhood association had a great start with a meeting where we used Open Space Technology openspaceworld.org so people could self organize and create a strategy, asking the question "How can we work together to make this neighborhood a place where everyone thrives?" People shared their talents and resources so generously--they were inspired! Now, we have a neighborhood that can truly be called a community--where people share healthy meals every evening, with people taking turns preparing the food so each person only has to make food twice a month. It is so wonderful to serve everyone's needs--raw foodists, vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters all are content. We also have a system where everyone who participates has leftovers for lunch, snacks, and can buy inexpensive food to supply their other needs.

People are experiencing phenomenal improvements in health due to the organic foods and healthy food preparation, as well as the love that people put into both the purchasing and meal planning and preparation. Plus, people save so much time they have more time to be with their families or participate in social and service projects in our community and the Fayetteville community.

I am rejoicing over the fact that our neighborhood contributes minimally to pollution. Almost every house is solar powered, well-insulated, collects rain water for all water usage, and has a green house. We are organically growing all the food we need on this rich piece of land, as well as selling at the farmer's market and having a community supported agriculture business. We've set up our own local bus service, and most people have diesel vehicles fueled by recycled vegetable oil. It sure feels good to be off the grid! All the trees we planted actually helps purify our air.

We have a school for the sustainable arts for people of all ages, and a dormitory and cottages for people to live in while they attend. It is a democratic school, modeled after Summerhill, and it is great!
And last but not least, we have found ways to create right livelihoods for everyone. People learned how to live more simply and need less money. A benefactor provided micro-loans to people. We have a sourdough bakery, raw foods producer, computer services, seamstress, gardeners, writers, actors, musicians, artists, and more!

As I describe more of our neighborhood, I am so thrilled to tell you that we have been given a large grant so we can create a training program for neighborhood facilitators who can easily duplicate our efforts in other neighborhoods. We don't want to keep the good news to ourselves! In fact, many are volunteering to help with the project to create an on-line training program for neighborhood facilitators, connect with others who are doing similar work, to interface with all the neighborhoods in Fayetteville, and to do a community-wide gathering which we want to inspire people to learn more about how to create a successful neighborhood. The whole family is getting ready to go on the road with a musical, dramatic, fun presentation which helps inspire people to learn about this project and get involved.


One of the first things we did was to do what is called "prayer walking". A number of us started walking through our neighborhood and praying for everyone. We initially had done a survey to find out what people needed and what they had to offer, as well as their vision. In this way, we could pray more specifically. The results were wonderful--just doing the spiritual work paved the way, it seemed, for smooth sailing for the most part.

I facilitated classes in compassionate communication, and many people in the Farm Neighborhood were really excited about the concepts. When we started focusing on listening to each other, creating win-win solutions, and communicating in clear, non-judgmental ways, it really helped when we got into conflicts. This way of communicating also brought us all closer together, and the ones who were at first skeptical were also inspired to try it, with great success.

I was able to write up a description of what I was envisioning, and then I put it out via internet and other avenues. I wanted to find some interns who wanted to learn about community work--and 4 showed up--all women. We ended up fixing the top of the community center so each person could have a little comfortable room. We bonded very quickly, and were so in tune with each other--I felt so excited and grateful to have a team to work with. Because we all lived simply and helped each other increase our energy, time, and money--through spiritual, mental, emotional and physical ways that we all shared--we became as one. Our focused energy was able to move mountains--and that is why we were able to do all this in one year. We each were committed to our individual spiritual paths, and we found a way to blend those beliefs and commitments into an interfaith alliance that was truly beautiful and wondrous to behold. I can say we experienced the Agape, (unconditional) love that is talked about in the Bible.

We created a recycling center where we could store things like batteries, fluorescent bulbs, broken glass, and all the typical things that people recycle. We got to the point where we had less and less to recycle because people were committed to using items which could be used over and over--for example, instead of getting a lot of plastic bags, people used cloth bags; we bought rechargeable batteries and rechargers in bulk so everyone could afford them. Our buying club enabled people to bring their own containers. We all feel so good about living lightly on the earth! Also, we helped each other simplify our lives so we had less to throw away or recycle.

People also rallied around the concept of having a scent-free neighborhood in order to nurture people who were extra sensitive to scents. The great thing about this was that not only did we show our caring to one resident in particular who was having problems in that area--but we found that in order to be really kind to the earth and animals (a lot of scented products use animals to experiment on), using non-scented products was helpful. We also found our health improve, as well as the kindness we showed to sensitive residents and visitors helped improve our immune systems.

The children embarked on a program focusing on practicing random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. They did things to surprise residents--like delivering cards with kind messages, or planting flowers in often-walked public places. They went caroling at Christmas and everyone received a birthday card due to their caring. A number of adults were involved so it really was an intergenerational effort--and the result was that most people felt so cheered up that they also wanted to spread loving kindness. This spirit of love permeated our neighborhood so that you can almost feel it walking down the streets!

And I really am happy to report that the community center has been well used, and expanded. People came forth to help get the running water going, close in the top and the side porch so we could have more room. People donated money each time they used it so we could keep improving it. We created a cooperative life-long learning center where people of all ages are learning skills including art, carpentry, pottery, yoga, compassionate communication, the 3 r's (for our homeschoolers) and computer sciences.

Lots of gatherings have been held their, including a regular Christ-centered open worship with lots of music, prayer,drama, dance, and creative presentation of Jesus's teachings. Also an interfaith group meets to focus on spirituality. Support groups, emotional healing, conflict resolution sessions, music gathering, band rehearsals, drama club rehearsals, and of course neighborhood association meetings have taken place there. That little place is quite happening, and I am so grateful to Josh Brown, Martha Pilgrim and Anne Brown for offering me stewardship of the community center so that everyone could benefit

As I worked on the neighborhood, and a structure was in place, I was ready to focus on the Livable Future Alliance. This organization, patterned after the Coalition for AaLivable Future (www.clf.org) in Portland, OR, is what I had dreamed of initiating ever since I heard about it 5 years ago after the tree sit ordeal. (that is a whole nother true story). I connected with them and learned how they got started, and saved all the information they sent me at that time. Then I reconnected and they supported me and mentored me so that I could easily get this coalition off the ground. Northwest Arkansas was definitely ready for some team work after all the separation and frustration that has happened.

My skills at facilitating meetings, mediation, organizing, writing, coordinating, public speaking, creating training programs have been fine tuned and I feel very confident about using those skills now. I was fortunate to be able to take many seminars and classes so I could really be on the cutting edge. And I am happy that I use my music to lead songs at times, and to sing songs of inspiration.

The greatest result is that we have had what can be called a spiritual awakening where people are getting in touch with our Creator. We all encourage each other to follow our unique spiritual path--the main common denominator is that we are full of joy, desiring to serve, wanting to learn how to forgive and love unconditionally. We reach out to the larger community in many ways, including street theatre, doing workshops, singing at convalescent hospitals, and helping with homeless shelters. Many of us envision a world where the hungry, lonely, isolated, homeless, suffering people will have easy access to fulfill their basic needs. The opportunity to be able to duplicate our efforts and connect with others doing similar work fills us with hope that this could be a reality.

We hosted a community wide open space conference for three consecutive evenings where people came together and asked the question, How can we make a Fayetteville where everyone thrives? We had a free healthy meal, fun activities for children and teenagers, and at the end of the conference had an action plan where people felt empowered to do their part to make Fayetteville a place where everyone thrives. We are confident that we can duplicate this effort, helping to make neighborhoods, cities, counties states, and countries into places where everyone thrives. It is just a matter of empowering people mainly using open space--so that everyone can get involved, share their gifts, and feel a sense of joy and belonging and peace as they serve each other.

One of the projects that people embraced was the Community Gathering. I compare this to the world wide web in that it brings people together and enables them to quickly find out who has similar interests, make connections, friends, have fun, and collaborate on projects, get support for their businesses and organizations, and get spiritual sustenance as well! Athiests and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, Unitarians and Unitics, Humanists and Catholics, conservatives and liberals and radicals can come together to connect and dialogue and find common ground. The free healthy meal, enriching activities and inclusion of children and teens, and ways to encourage poor, homeless, isolated, ride-less, handi-capped, elderly people to participate--all make this an enriching evening. Using open space technology really works on this one! These meetings have sprung up all over town and are overseen by a community facilitator and small groups of dedicated volunteers. It takes the place of church for those who are unchurched, and enriches lives of those who do have a church.

Well, I celebrate all that has been done, and I want to hear from each of you your great visions and accomplishments so that I can help you to achieve your goals--that's my deepest wish, that I can help people tune into the Life inside of them, that God-presence, so we can manifest our highest potential! It won't be long before we can create the critical mass of people who are completely committed and able to create the world we all envision where people live in harmony, joy, contentment, with all basic needs and more.

And I am celebrating that so many people have been empowered to be teachers, mentors, trainers, facilitators--able to duplicate easily what I have done--and I can rejoice in their accomplishments as well. I am so happy that I was able to nurture myself, my family, neighborhood, larger community and the world while following my heart. That is the way God intended it to be!

I want to thank God and Jesus for their support in all that has happened. I give them credit because my life has changed so much since I have really focused on my spiritual life with Jesus at the center.