While my current personal journey is taking me on a journey of shared life in L'Arche in Jacksonville, FL and Atlanta, GA, a long-term dream of mine and others' is to help develop what I've called "a beautiful life in Nashville."
This vision is of a community of people with and without intellectual disabilities in Middle Tennessee:
...perhaps a home (to become multiple homes),
...perhaps a network of intentional communities and/or individuals/families who would like to welcome and share life with adults with intellectual disabilities in their homes,
...perhaps a farm where folks would gather for daytime productive activities and community gatherings
The community would foster mutual relationships among community members, with members' wider faith communities, and the earth.
This vision is of a community of people with and without intellectual disabilities in Middle Tennessee:
...perhaps a home (to become multiple homes),
...perhaps a network of intentional communities and/or individuals/families who would like to welcome and share life with adults with intellectual disabilities in their homes,
...perhaps a farm where folks would gather for daytime productive activities and community gatherings
The community would foster mutual relationships among community members, with members' wider faith communities, and the earth.
The vision emerges from the passion of individuals in the Nashville area for:
-life in community,
-ecologically sustainable lifestyles,
-experienced witness of the gifts of persons with intellectual disabilities,
-and concern for the situation of a long (8,000 persons) and closed waiting list for housing for persons with intellectual disabilities in the state of Tennessee, as well as the recent closing of Clover Bottom Development Center, a state institution for persons with profound intellectual disabilities in Middle Tennessee.
