Introducing Ionia Alaska | OCNJ Daily

“Shared sorrow is half sorrow. Shared pleasure is double pleasure.” – Nigerian proverb

Ionia is a small peer assist eco-village situated within the forests of the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. The distinctive tradition right here was solid by 4 founding households within the late Eighties. These 4 households got here from completely different geographic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, from California working class to East Coast blue blood, in addition to completely different sorts of inside pressures. Many of the founding adults had behavioral sickness diagnoses stemming from deep troubles with their circumstances, rising up.

Of their chosen semi-isolation within the woods of Kasilof, by way of a trial and error neighborhood course of, the unique founding households got here to imagine that every particular person serves an important function in a neighborhood, simply as lungs and kidneys carry out very important capabilities in a physique. Additionally they discovered that every one life topics are interconnected: that in an effort to sustainably change one half, they needed to start to vary many assumptions, inherited beliefs, and habits. To let go of the previous and hearken to the brand new, they needed to discover braveness and curiosity, which solely got here from severe soul looking out and the deep want for a constructive path.

To nurture their gathering, they discovered that they’d to have the ability to cease scuffling with, and pursuing, monetary achieve, which appeared out of attain… In order that they took steps in direction of voluntary simplicity and pooling assets… And to have the ability to intently share assets, and lift their many children collectively, they needed to forge out a versatile, shared imaginative and prescient and customary language… which took sitting down to fulfill collectively each day. They every had completely different matters which have been most necessary to them, so all of them started to bounce with one another, with all their completely different strengths. And so, they discovered themselves on a spiral of constructing a brand new tradition, collectively.

This spirit of the founders has lived on into the present generations and populations of Ionia. The little eco-village stays devoted to a plant-based eating regimen, to residing merely in concord with nature inside and with out. Ionia is just not an answer to all issues, but the straightforward gathered life units a precedent for strolling into daunting fashionable challenges. Many have discovered that that precedent, irrespective of how obscure or distant, can tip the dimensions towards constructive change. The luxurious gardens and log beams, easy exercise, grounded concepts, and vibrant starlit Alaskan nights have a deeply rejuvenating and galvanizing impact. Ionia has discovered endurance as a neighborhood and has turn into a pressure for constructive change in Alaska’s behavioral well being methods, native farming efforts, peer assist motion, and extra pure constructing practices.

Ionia’s year-round inhabitants now hovers round 60 individuals, of all ages and skills, from newborns to elders. Within the hotter months, the village numbers swell with new and previous buddies, dozens of volunteers, in addition to frequent day excursions. Ionia has turn into well-known for scrumptious macrobiotic cooking, pioneering spirit, peer assist abilities, and explorations into numerous pure constructing and rising strategies. They’re spoken of as “the Shire” or “our little commune”- normally with affection. Ionia typically companions with Alaskan social service organizations, native meals advocates, Alaskan Native tribes, and state authorities to prepare trainings, occasions, and workshops that additional their mission.

Ionia residents are all about meals. The second and third generations have begun to ferment meals in earnest: making mouth-watering miso, shoyu (soy sauce), cider and sake, amasake (candy rice ferment), tempeh (soybean cheese), and natto (sticky, pungent, fermented soybeans), sourdoughs, sauerkrauts, kimchees and pickles of all kinds. The neighborhood commonly makes contemporary tofu, seitan (wheat-meat), mochi (sticky candy rice pancakes), child meals, and desserts from scratch. The residents decide wild sea greens, mushrooms, berries, greens, and herbs, and dry some for winter consuming. The big natural gardens develop hundreds of kilos of vibrant, cool climate greens; and are dwelling for experiments with winter squashes, corn, beans, seeds, and grains within the many greenhouses.

This bustling atmosphere was born out of the dynamic mixture of strain and imaginative and prescient. Nobody is bound if the founders have been courageous pioneers, idealists, and visionaries, or in the event that they have been failures, mentally unwell, and unable to manage. Both approach, they wouldn’t or couldn’t match into the busy buildings of contemporary society. A number of the frequent sense views are generally known as macrobiotics – or “massive life” – and the accepting Alaskan tradition gave them a sensible pathway to channel their energies and desires, pool assets and strengths, to create a post-post modern-day village…. which has turn into a mannequin. It’s given the second and third generations an enormous reserve of social capital. Ionia has turn into an genuine, pure lifestyle; an out-of-the-ordinary atmosphere to collect inside, in order that frequent sense can come alive. The hope is that this lifestyle will proceed to develop and deepen for a lot of generations to comply with, and encourage many different related cooperative initiatives.

For extra details about Ionia, see www.ionia.org