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Welcome to the GaiaYoga website. This website is geared towards two primary functions. One, to share the overall vision and teaching of GaiaYoga with people. And two, to attract people to GaiaYoga Gardens Intentional Community, our permaculture homestead, and learning & healing center on the Big Island of Hawaii. We're wanting to find more folks to join us here in co-creating a sustainable and holistic intentional community.
GaiaYoga Gardens was purchased in December of 2002. At that time it was 17.75 acres of raw, forested land, with a mixture of native, naturalized, and invasive tropical species of plants and animals creating a balanced Hawaiian eco-system.
Since the beginning, the dream has been to weave in our human settlement and our cultural vision into the already existing web of life of on this land. Rather than dominating the land with tractor, bulldozer, and lawnmower, we dance with it - sculpting out a niche for our home. a little bit at a time, primarily using hand tools (machetes, saws, sickles, shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, drills, etc.)
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GaiaYoga Gardens from space circa 2007.
The white squares are our tarp structures. The line at
the front is the road we live on. The property extends
well beyond the photo to the top and left. Pictured is
about 5 acres of the land.
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We moved into our first "tropical breeze house," home-made,
eco-structure in the summer of 2003. Ever since we've been
improving the infrastructure, planting food trees, bamboo, and
gardens, building our businesses, connecting with the Earth here,
growing spiritually, learning to live together, healing from our
past, enjoying the blessings of our present, and envisioning a
future rich with the fruits and labor of a sustainable and
holistic community. There's been dozens of people who've stayed
with us over the years, some for weeks, some for months or years,
but most are not here now. A few of us have stuck and are now the
foundation of what GaiaYoga Gardens is becoming. We have lots of
stories and "eras" that we've gone through to get to the place we
are now.
The two biggest things we've learned so far: 1) Creating an
intentional community is a slow-moving sport that requires a lot
of patience and grace. 2) Humans are the toughest crop of all...
Bananas and solar systems come relatively easy compared to what
it takes to heal and re-educate our selves to live together
sustainably. Founding a community or a new culture takes time,
lots of behind-and-under-the-scene work, lots of devotion, lots
of compassion for ourselves and others, and a very wide and deep
set of tools and skills.
It also involves a lot of disappointment when things don't go
as we were hoping. More than anything it involves having the
ability to bring creative and connected energy to life
consistently. Creating community and developing ourselves into
adults who are able to live sustainably and holistically demands
the same kind of energy that parenting does - dependable
devotion, the ability to give energy when we'd rather not, and
the ability to create joy out of challenges.
As much as we're proud of what's manifesting materially on the
land - our visible structure- we're probably more proud of what's
gestating and growing within the people who are involved with
GaiaYoga - our invisible structure. We see ouselves healing out
of our conditioning, and becoming the wholistic, fully alive
people that we were intended to be.
GaiaYoga Nursery, Maku'u Farmer's Market Booth, May, 2009.
You can see most of what we sell,from right to left (more or less). Fijian
machetes, bamboo plants, Thai natural rubber slippers (aka flip-flops),
local tropical fruit, honey, toilet paper made from sugar cane, LED
headlamps, perennial peanut (no-mow lawn), drinking coconuts, tropical
fruit trees, coconut trees, books, and lilikoi plants, etc.
We hope you find grounded inspiration at our site. Feel free to contact us if you're interested in visiting us, immersing in our lifestyle for a while, creating your home here, ordering something, or if you just have a question or comment.
As of June 2011, we are 3 permanent members (1 being our 8 week old son, Elohi:-), 2 long-term residents exploring membership, 5 interns, and periodic visiting parents, grandparents, and friends. There were 3 couples and 2 children who were living here throughout fall, winter, and spring of 2010-2011 who have left and may or may not return depending on where their paths take them. Several former adult and children residents of GaiaYoga Gardens have bought into a shared property behind us where each person owns 3 acres, and they are an ongoing part of our daily/weekly life.
We are actively seeking mature adults (singles, couples, and families) who would like to share this land and vision with and make it their home too. We particularly are calling in people who are "done with their search" and our ready to root and make a life-commitment to a single place and group of people. We've been blessed with many people lately who we love and resonate with, but aren't in the stage of life where they want to be rooted in one place, so we realize we want to add that element to our prayer.
Warmly,
Ano & Melekai
Stewards of GaiaYoga Gardens
