Laurelwood - First Impressions

Hello, all!  Apologies for not writing sooner.  It's been 3.5 weeks since I arrived at our new home here in Oregon (wife Manisha had been here 6 weeks prior).  ... But let's back up a bit:  How'd we get here?

Where last we left off, Dambara (aka Joe) was on staff with the Ananda center in Palo Alto; Manisha (aka Marilyn) was working as a consultant in the pharmaceutical industry, helping them with their clinical trials; and also volunteering a bunch with Ananda.  Both of us were living at the Ananda residential community in Mountain View—Dambara for 16 years, Manisha for 12.

Fast-forward:  Ananda, in Portland, Oregon (Beaverton, to be exact) has another Temple, Teaching Center, and School, plus nearby residential community—similar to Palo Alto, but at about 2/3 scale.  In the same way that Ananda Palo Alto had been looking for years to acquire a rural retreat—recently resulting in the purchase of 62-acre Ananda Valley Farm in Half Moon Bay (yay!)—Ananda Portland had also been looking for a beautiful rural area...

Enter Laurelwood.

The Laurelwood Valley, 16 miles west of Portland, is a gorgeous farmland and vineyard region.  Since the early 1900s, it's been home to another thriving (and vegetarian) spiritual community, the Seventh Day Adventists.  Over the years they built the Laurelwood Academy (the teal roofs at the left side of this beautiful photo by Kent Williams)—an amazingly large and well-rounded 50-acre campus for 500 high school and elementary students.

Then, over time, enrollment declined; eventually, the school moved to Jasper, Oregon, just outside of Eugene.  In 2007 the campus, plus 175 acres of surrounding farmland, was put up for sale.

When the leaders of Ananda Portland saw the campus property, plus the beautiful surrounding farmland (the top, and right half, of the photo above), they knew it had the potential to be a full-fledged World Brotherhood Colony, like Ananda Village.

All it required was $4 million.

Well, at the time, that figure was too large to compute for most Anandans.  Long story short:  what did happen was, in 2011 Ananda raised the funds to purchase the Laurelwood Campus only—but not the surrounding farmlands.

Still, the scope and potential of the campus alone amazed and inspired all who visited there.  Ananda College relocated from its former home at the Ananda Meditation Retreat to the new campus.

Then, the surrounding farmlands (without some of the homes and buildings included originally) came up for sale again.  By this time, the Ananda world had realized what an incredible opportunity that represented.  An offer was made, and accepted.  Price:  $2.2 million.  A $400K down payment was made, with a $1.8 million balloon payment due November 15, 2013—ohmygosh, less than a month away!

... But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves; we were talking about how Dambara & Manisha got here...

Well, last March, a week before Easter, both of us flew up to be in a special concert performance at Laurelwood of Swami Kriyananda's Oratorio "Christ Lives".  It was the first time Manisha had visited the Laurelwood campus.  Still, no big "aha"...

Then, in April, we took an RV vacation, and headed up north to visit Redding (seriously, to see the Sundial Bridge); Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park; Ashland, OR, where we took in a couple of plays (plus removed Dambara's gall bladder); & a did few other hikes & visits, eventually ending up in Portland & Laurelwood, where we visited with friends for several days.

'Twas then that the magic hit.  Well, Manisha, mostly.  Her name means "Mind of God", or Divine Intuition... and she was on fire with the potential she beheld at Laurelwood.  "I'm moving here!" she declared.

My name, on the other hand, means "Self-Restraint". "No way!" I thought.  I'm perfectly content in Palo Alto, where I have a very satisfying job, friends, California sunshine...

So, eventually, we bought a house and moved here:

We're a 10-minute walk down the road from the campus.  It's a 100-year-old farm house on 2.5 acres, that's been kept up very well by the previous owners.

Now THAT is an adjustment.  I've never owned a home before.  I'd thought, "OK, this'll be a nice interim period where I can relax, catch up on some computer projects..."

Those of you who are homeowners can join me now:  "Ha Ha."

Plus, it's silly to think you can be anywhere near a place as roiling and dynamic as this campus is, and stay uninvolved for long.

It rained for the first 2 weeks I was here... (a loving "Ha Ha" from Divine Mother)... but now, it's sunny, and let me tell you, when the sun comes out, it's glorious, and your heart dances like in the monsoon dance scene from the movie Lagaan, only in reverse.

And driving anywhere nearby is simply a visual celebration.  This area is one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys on the planet.

OK, now, back to the land purchase... Ananda has until November 15 to pay the remaining $1.8 million (tho', ideally, $2 million) in order to secure the 175 acre farmland purchase.  We're trying something new:  rather than "only" tapping Ananda members & friends for donation and investment funds, we're working with an outside, professional investment company, Semble, to offer 4% return on loans investors make.

We've raised $1 million so far.  "Only" $1 million to go!

Disclaimer:  This blogpost is not intended as an investment pitch—Ananda has lots of expansion projects worldwide, and we don't want to compete with any of those.  However, it IS a reality that if we DON'T raise the funds, the land WILL be developed into thirty 5-acre lots by a housing developer.  YUK!

Ananda hopes to more consciously develop the land, preserving the existing open space, vistas & wildlands, while clustering homes and community centers into more beautiful groups, like at Ananda Village.

Folks should go here if interested, and to learn more.

That's the basic news so far.  People here are extraordinary... no surprise.  It's kinda like a frontier town.  And folks in Oregon are super-friendly.  But I suppose those details will have to await a future blogpost...

Joy and love to you all!

Oh, here are our particulars:

Dambara Begley & Manisha Holm
39497 SW Laurelwood Rd
Gaston, OR  97119

Dambara's cell:  650-224-9855
dambara108@gmail.com

Manisha's cell:  971-258-4196
manishaholm@gmail.com

P.S. we have a guest room.  :-)