While organizing the last books on the shelves and wrapping up odds and ends in the freshly opened library space, I am listening to the sounds of a melody floating in from the Church space. Cecile from the neighbor is at the piano, playing a tune. She is on her own, after finishing a long and stressful study project, and she just came to play for a while. Mark, who has been away and now come back to Knowlesville - maybe to settle - is working, plastering the walls on the other side of the room.
I enjoy this space, feeling it is alive. This is community, I think. This space is for the people, for us to come when we are tired, read a book, play music, participate a workshop or organize one in any topic one could think of. There are so many opportunities it can bring. Soon there will be another organ in this body, the community Energy Co-op, inhabiting the upstairs.
I’ve heard this before during my stay here in Knowlesville – singing and piano lessons creating a background into the landscape of my mind while working, whether it was with books, firewood, or with the straw, plaster & paint in the new extension space. It feels good to have sounds of joy and life around me while working. It’s been exciting to be a part of this evolving community for a while, and to meet its youth and elders. I’d like to thank everyone who has shared their time, opened up to discussions and friendship.
KAN to me, as an observer and visiting volunteer, has a clear aim to create facilities towards a local life style. It appears as a space promoting locality, a resource that can be useful to families and people of any age. Hopefully its presence will eventually give incentives for more people to settle in this landscape.
I would like to express my feeling of KAN as a platform where anyone from the community can come and create what they would wish to see. I believe this to be so important at a time where societies are built on high &fast inputs, high &fast expectations and high &fast consumption, including goods and people constantly traveling back and forth long ways in order to meet everyone’s needs. What if a person’s needs could be more slowly, and locally met? Could the things and knowledge we have right here be cherished, and the ability to create life with our own hands and bodies (even if they were not trained in a university)?
As a volunteer, I have only made a small input and stayed for a tiny moment in time. Apart from KAN activities, I have been learning to take time for my own life explorations, and this journey will still take me on, enjoying the travels of continuing youth. However, Knowlesville has provided me with important encounters, friendships and a platform to investigate my interests and ways to function. For that I am very thankful.
Take care, everyone in Knowlesville community - until we meet again!
All the best from Pauliina
Knowlesville visiting resident since Nov 2010, KAN volunteer from Jan to March 2011.
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