Change is Cropping Up: Kailash Ecovillage

She’s 48 and she see the wrinkle lines in the mirror she can now call hers. When she meets with the ladies at the new book club she joined last month she feels a little rush of excitement every time she casually says, “Well, it’s about time I head home.” The word still feels funny in her head. It’s a dream she’s happy not to pinch herself to stay in.

He’s just a kid who tells his mom school’s keeping them longer these days. He goes through the strange ritual of joining her in making a fuss about how “unconstitutional” it is that school’s make “our kids put in longer hours than most full ass grown adults!” He does it all so he can sit here for an hour, finding a moment of peace between the hell of school and the hell of home. Sometimes he picks weeds and recently he’s been raking. The potatoes are growing and one day he’ll grow up to nerd out about “soil richness” and claim the real Renaissance happened with the discovery of crop rotation.

They’re new here and aren’t sure what they think yet. They don’t talk much to the others because they’re new to the quiet of being alone. Last night, they found a pair of scissors in the big green and their head feels lighter this morning. They like cutting their hair at night – it gives them something to wake up excited about. It’s in the bamboo thicket overrun by invasive squirrels and the rain-can watering system that they’re starting to get a sense of who they are. It’s been all of never that they had the luxury of having an identity.

Kailash Ecovillage is sustainably-focused intentional community centered in inner SE Portland. With rooms offered under low-market average and a community garden tended to (and eaten from) by residents and the public, Kailash brings a wholesome and peaceful ethic to a community that, all too often, gets handed the business end of Portland’s gentrification, housing crisis, domestic abuse, and homelessness. Any one of us who have seen and felt the hurt of the injustices suffered by so many have also seen and felt the helpless of being one person against the evils of the world. Kailash demonstrates the work we can do. It’s a big dream and big dedication followed by many small steps, small wins, and small numbers. But the impact on the people who pass through is immeasurable. They are the ones to meet, the ones to match, and the ones to admire.