Ann Kreilkamp 

Ph.D. Philosophy, Boston University, 1972. Teacher (1972-73) at the experimental New College of California, from which I was fired after one year as “too experimental.” Professional astrologer, author (This Vast Being: A Voyage through Grief and Exaltation, 2006), publisher of Crone Chronicles: A Journal of Conscious Aging (1989-2001), 20 years as columnist, SageWoman Magazine. Now a daily blogger (annkreilkamp.net).

Little did I know, when my husband Jeff Joel, having decided to go to law school in the middle of his life, bought the ‘50s ranch house at 134 Overhill Drive in Bloomington, Indiana, that it would morph, over time, into the anchor home for the larger vision and grounded practice of three homes and grounds of what is now known as Green Acres Permaculture Village. Jeff died soon after we moved here from a yurt village in Kelly Wyoming. I remained.

This is not my first experiment in community, but at 79, it will likely be my last. What I appreciate particularly about our little village and urban farm is that we are intergenerational, alchemizing the wisdom of age with the energy and vision of youth; that we work with the shadow, both individually and as a group; that we see ourselves as offering a new template for suburbia; and that we honor and cherish Mother Earth as our teacher.