Ande's Version Of How He Came To Be At Tipi Village

To fill out some history of Tipi Village in Southern Oregon, here's my version of how here came to be now- Ande

This story is true.
It does not begin with the man who tasted Mother Earth and her moist, green, Cymreig hills. Nor with the legend of an Irishman who showed him how to shelter himself from the horizontal sleet of that place, or the many who dreamed with that dream or lived with that life of that valley tucked between those moors.
It does not start with his journey West across the ocean to the back of the Great Turtle. Or with the lodge he made and his bamboo poles and his Rainbow trail and his lodge-pole pine.
Not, too, his arrival in the North-West, or even when he met, and loved for the first time, his wife and took her to the aftermath of Ms. Katrina to shelter the people.
We can begin this story after their first child was born and their second was due. Longing for a place where they could simply pitch their lodge, surrounded by Cascades and Siskiyou's, they gazed towards the horizon and said,"Look at all that Mother Earth, let's just go there and see what happens."
So they faced some fear and they went and they found a place of iridescent splendour, by the creek. And their baby arrived.
Then a man in a uniform with a gun arrived and said,"Well, this place is beyond my jurisdiction, have a nice day." And he left in his white truck.
Then a woman came and said,"Yup, this is our land, you're welcome." That was five and a half years ago from the telling of this tale.
Many more and different things have happened since and this small valley has continued to open in welcome abandon to this family now of six. And families and non-families have come and gone and stayed and children have been caught again and again in the arms of the Great Mother and her connection and their connection has grown and strengthened and deepened through their blood and water, breath and fire, bone and stone.
They are re-learning life and balance and harmony and how to walk that walk in honest love. Not to teach or educate, or even to be an example but because it feels good to walk in inspiration with Great Mother in a wholesome way.
The process continues to unfold and the people become more whole. They de-fragment in the sweat lodge. They see the land flourish and thrive as they flourish and thrive.
The strength of their connection is supported by precepts such as moving twice a year, Autumn and Spring dropping 2500' in elevation and moving 5-6 miles in distance. Maintaining an open community through the openness of the Big Lodge. Living away from the road and maintaining living place free from the oppression and inherent damage of fossil fueled machinery. Carrying wood, fetching water. Living around the fire and sleeping with their love, on the ground