Last month we announced the following opportunity in our newsletter:
Starting December 15th and ending sometime after Feb 15th, Mark Welch and I are looking for a non-abelist, non fat phobic personal care assistant trade of 25-30 hours a week for free room and board. Ultimately we are wanting an able bodied, open minded, intelligent ecosexual being who would like to live in egalitarian loving intentional community with us. Must have good boundaries, be emotionally stable, and have self loving behaviors. Daily spiritual practices and strong desire to evolve humans are a plus!! Call Teri to set up a mutual interview ASAP at (206) 612-3511.
After a few interviews and lots of email requests for more information I will add this:
In looking at how much work is needed and the actual trade value of room and board Mark and I have come up with this: The value of living in the spare room of our house is $500 a month plus cash for the person(s) utilities usage. The value of living alone in the Temple which is a complete and functional house is $750 plus utilities paid in cash. Living in the Temple house also requires a special level of personal evolution, emotional maturity and non-attachement as the temple is not a personal home but rather a private transpersonal space primarily used for healing and spiritual practices.The Temple room is regularly used for teaching and doing session work. You need to maintain a energetic space and a lifestyle that can prioritize these activities over your need for privacy and ownership. Mark and I are looking for a work trade that is skill level equivalent to the current cash value of rents given here. A lot is negotiable. Do you do massage or other holistic healing sessions? these can be bartered at market rates. Do you make awesome food? Can you garden, make medicines, have intelligent conversations about gender fluid activism?
I will need about 2-4 hours a day total of personal care, helping me get up and get to bathroom, making me food, helping me get dressed from the 5th-15th of January. I will need increasingly less help afterwards. There is no way for me to know exactly what I will need. Ideally, Mark will need someone to make him lunches for work before he leave at 8;30am, they are very simple sandwiches and fruits and veggies. he can do without this. Some of my close personal friends will be helping me meet some of these needs but Mark cannot. So, if you are not interested in a live in work trade but you have the time and inclination to do some personal care work for me in January I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. For this go to the caring bridge website link which will have a calendar page for signing up to help by Dec 15th.
Other details of interest
We usually get up around 7;30 am and go to bed around 11:30pm. There are many exceptions. The house is wound proofed because it was a music school and there is very little loud noise even when Mark is making or listening to ambient downbeat electronic musics. We have two young cats that like to go in and out at will and need food and litter box cleanings. We sweep the floors, clean the toilets and wash dishes and I will not be able to prioritize these activities from the time of surgery until my abdominal muscles recover from the surgery. I have no idea how long this will take but I feel secure and guessing I will be cable by the end of January.
We do not have TV. We do have a big screen and lap tops our usual evening activity is sharing FB and google plus posts from the day, reviewing relevant favorite media and watching the Rachel Maddox report or John Stewart Daily Show. The few other mainstream medias we consume are: Saturday Night Live, Portlandia & Bob’s Burger’s. I read A LOT, no really several books simultaneously, several books a week. I write daily, meditate daily and sit in the yard or porch daily as part of my spiritual practice. I stopped smoking again as the surgeon’s required it.
special things to now about me are:
I have excellent some say hyper active communication skills. I manage conflicts non-violently. I express feelings and mental processes transparently. I move through conflicts carefully. I take space apart/away from people during conflicts consciously and with consideration and clear communication. I know and use an elegant apologies process and professional mediation processes regularly. I have many deeply intimate years long relationships. I am not aware of hating or being deeply upset with anyone, even members of my family or origin. I am indebted to and actively living in the Tibetan Buddhist lineages of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche via Reginald Ray, the Tantric lineage of Rudolph Ballantine and Swami Rama, Pat Ray’s Gardnerian Wiccan heritage, the ancestors of the craft as given in Reclaiming Witchcraft training, my Italian American Bohemian and German genetic ancestry and my chosen poly kinky queer teachers and their herstories. I am deeply mystical and quite serious about all the weird stuff I write about on my website and in my newsletters. No, really.