If you were at last year's celebration of our fifteenth year of operation you know what a festive occasion it was. But it was only one in a succession of annual celebrations, sometimes just a small group from the extended community gathering with the residents. The celebration has always included planting a tree.
In 2005, the celebration, shown above, was an intimate gathering of residents with a few members of our extended community. Diana Leafe Christian, who at that time was editor of a magazine devoted to all types of communitarian projects, was visiting us.
On the day before our celebration she shared some of the things she had learned from studying intentional communities - those that succeeded and those that didn't.
The next day we held our ceremony of planting the tree, and Dianna spoke briefly during the ceremony.
Will this year's Sweet Sixteen be a bigger event than last year's Celebrate Fifteen? That's up to you. If all of you reading this register for Sweet Sixteen, we'll make it the biggest celebration ever.