Dear Julia, fellow Whatʼs Your Tree Folk and Friends,

First, thank you Julia for extending the invitation to participate in the GIFT GIVING CHALLENGE. Your invitation arrived, Synchronistically, at the end of what has been a revolutionary year in the life of my family. My husband Eddie, our eight-year-old daughter Olivia, and I moved from Los Angeles, California to Damanhur, Italy on August 13th, 2009.

For those of you who donʼt know, Damanhur is an extraordinary eco-community and center for Spiritual Research, located in the foothills of the Alps of Northern Italy — in essence, “A Magical Community,” of about 900 people. We are the first American family to make this our permanent home. We join one other American living here, our friend and Whatʼs Your Tree Group leader, Giada.

I answer the Triad of your challenge with these three snippets of our life in Damanhur.

WORLD
We have opted not for a single Super Duper Minimal impact day, but to change ourentire way of being in the world, by living more sustainably. In a “Choice-less Choice,”that was the culmination of a five year search for significance in our lives, we donated, sold and gave to friends more than three-quarters of our combined life-times (114 years) worth of accumulated “stuff,” making a huge effort for our belongings to go to people in need and not a landfill. We packed the rest, wrapped up lucrative work, said farewell to our beloved Waldorf Community, friends and family and stepped into the conscious world that is the Federation of Damanhur, on the other side of the planet.

Damanhur is 65% self-sufficient. Much of our food is grown by our Community and sold through a coop. We eat locally, even when shopping outside of Damanhur. We no longer enjoy things like avocados or mangoes that have traveled the world, but have learned to make a mean Kiwi marmalade, from the plethora of fruit that grows on our friendʼs trees. We traded three cars and an average of two hours a day on the highways of Los Angeles, for one car. There are many days each month when we choose not to drive at all. We live in Vidracco and can walk to almost anything we need. We participate in the “Synchronistic Ride Share,” that is part of Damanhur. Many people in our Community choose to live without cars. As a result, when we do use our car, we are never alone, or for that matter, lonely! Whatever errand we must do, there is always someone else in the Community keen to share a ride. The most extraordinary moment of “ride-share” came about a month ago, when I picked up a guest who was visiting Damanhur and in need of a ride. When we introduced ourselves, we found out we were from the same tiny coal mining community in the mountains of Appalachia — Kingwood, West Virginia!

A town of about 2,000 people. Talk about Synchronicity! The benefits of sharing your car with others goes way beyond the reduction of ones carbon footprint, often reaching moments of beautiful human connection.

We have transformed our former consumer driven American life-style into something much simpler and, for us, more meaningful. We no longer live in a huge home with gardens and swimming pool; much more square footage than three people need. We live in a small, but warm and inviting little apartment, in the heart of Damanhur. Our home is always open and our table always full of friends, Damanurians, or guests of the Community. While we have consciously cut our energy consumption, the energy generated around our kitchen table by the vision, ideas and dreams shared, has the power to fuel the future of Humanity.

COMMUNITY
Damanhur has an intriguing way of always challenging my perceptions of myself. Though I was part of a Waldorf Teacher Training program in America, I have never seen myself as a teacher. So, of course, almost immediately I was asked to teach here. But not just any class! The baby class. I was asked to teach English to the group of twelve little ones, aged one-and-a-half to two. Some of whom donʼt even speak Italian yet! I couldnʼt say no! I reached into my heart and out came: Miss. Trudi

Each Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I don this gay persona, and skip into the Nido (baby class). Together with the wonderful teachers there, we sing favorite childrenʼs
songs in English, unfold paper snowflakes, dance with a rainbow of silk scarfs and embark upon whatever other engaging play I can invent to introduce English to my
delightful young class. As a result of my volunteer English teaching, Iʼve become a bit of a pop star for two year olds here! If you happen to be walking around the Territory of Damanhur with me, be prepared for the gleeful shriek of “MISS TRUDI!!!!” if we happen on any pint-sized Damanurians.

PERSONAL
The School of Meditation is a huge part of the body of Damanhur. Joining the School of Meditation is a life-long commitment that my husband and I made in September. It is rare for anyone to leave, so between Christmas and New Years, we were shocked and deeply saddened to learn that a member of our small group was going to depart Damanhur.

She is a single mother and it had become impossible to support her two children living here. She returned to Germany New Yearʼs day. Though money is very tight for almost everyone here, it is especially tight for the foreigners living here. At this time, our family lives on a fixed pension of less than $1900 a month, for three of us. In some parts of the world, this would be a fortune, in our old life, this would be two months of a Los Angeles water bill. That is hard for us to imagine now. Money has very different value and meaning in this new life, so though we finished the month with only 30 euro left, it was important for us and most of the other members of our Meditation Group to pool our money in a gesture of support for our friend and her family. We did so. Our friend left with this physical gift, but also with the gift of knowing we support her in her life-journey, wherever it may lead.

This concludes my response to your Whatʼs Your Tree gift giving challenge. For my family and me, 2009 has borne many life-transforming gifts, as we learn to be in the
world in a profoundly different way. Though Iʼve written some of the high points of our continuing transformation, many aspects of making the “Choice-less Choice” to leave our comfortable lives in America to be pioneers in Damanhur have been difficult and even painful. Even so, we have no regrets and Iʼm grateful your challenge has provided an opportunity to share a tiny bit of our story.

Thank you and Happy New Year/Decade! When you, or your friends come to visit Damanhur, we would love to hear from you.
With great warmth and respect,
Betsy Pool
Phone: 39.320.788.1352
Whatʼs Your Tree, Damanhur Group