An Open Letter To the dear people of Loveland, Loveland Council, and Zoning board
by Trina Paulus
Loveland, What a beautiful name!
I have been following the saga concerning Grailville from the inside of the movement and with great gratitude for David Miller and Loveland Magazine’s efforts to make sure that we know what we’re doing if we let this rare place go to so-called “development” and away from a better more sustainable vision people are calling for. (The Grailville Archive)
Maybe it has taken getting to the edge of permanent loss to realize this treasure we are about to lose if we don’t turn things around.
After restraining myself from bursts of gratitude with each installment in Loveland Magazine I feel compelled to let the Loveland community know that there are a substantial number of Grail people throughout this country and the world who want Grailville to survive and thrive and we join our voices with the people of Loveland who are organizing and speaking up. We believe the outpouring of Loveland support reveals new possibilities for a Grailville with new purpose within both the local and Global community. Maybe it has taken getting to the edge of permanent loss to realize this treasure we are about to lose if we don’t turn things around. Although some of us are now older we would be willing to help this happen believing in the generosity of the young who bear the future to bring their hopes and strength to support Grail and the Loveland community efforts.
I think that there are those representing us who have not read the signs of these speedily changing times correctly. Their hearts and intentions may be good, but I deeply believe that there is a vast number of people, especially the young, who yearn for the kind of holistic life I was privileged to experience at age 18 and for the next 20 years as I built up the arts at Grailville until called to help grow a woman’s weaving and embroidery cooperative in Akhmim upper Egypt.
What the new Grailville could be I’m not sure, but the values that built it were strong and still attractive to the young people I am in touch with. These are the ones who fill the Permaculture courses at Central Rocky Mountains Permaculture Institute, (CRMPI.org) where I am vice president, or here at home in Montclair, NJ, feeding people, planting community gardens, and pollinator corridors stretching from state to state.
It is hard at 90 years to volunteer knowing that whatever spiffy wisdom and energy I might bring I also bring the liability of age. However, the recent support of the Loveland people and the series published in Loveland Magazine: https://lovelandmagazine.com/history-of-grailville/ makes me feel excited and young enough to offer to help in any way I can to revitalize this magnificent place as a new kind of community neighbor that needs many of us to make it a new reality.
I and others have a vision of those able to be renewed to continue the habit of hospitality Grailville was famous for.
We would be facing some of the pioneering challenges the Grail faced in the 1940s. Some of the buildings will not make it, but I and others have a vision of those able to be renewed to continue the habit of hospitality Grailville was famous for. Imagine the greenest architects we know who love old buildings leading workshops each summer for all who want to learn how to renew and re-inhabit places rather than tear down and build new. We also still have many acres of organic certifiable land ready for a new burst of production to raise and share food.
There are Grail elders and younger ones around the world who would love to help.
There are Grail elders and younger ones around the world who would love to help along with the Loveland and wider local community who may be eager for this chance and new challenge to use our one glorious human life for building something precious.
We can create a place that will be valuable beyond money for the good of all.
I await the next development with prayer. May what is best for all happen.
Forward in hope always,
Trina Paulus, Grail Member – celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Hope For the Flowers” (www.hopefortheflowers.com)
Read more about Trina Paulus from the pages of Loveland Magazine
[Grailville Archive] The Very Unpleasant Thing: That God Can Ask Everything…
[Video Archive] The holy nature of Grailville for a teenage girl
