Build the world you want to live in.
We’ve been taught that community is something you find.
A neighborhood.
A church.
A birdwatching club.
An online group.
An intentional community tucked away in the mountains.
Sometimes that’s true.
But the strongest communities aren’t discovered.
They’re cultivated.
They grow because someone decides to show up, share what they know, lend a hand, invite people to the table, and care enough to keep showing up.
Community Sovereignty begins when you stop waiting for the perfect place…
and start becoming the kind of person who helps create one.
I didn’t move to East Tennessee because I found the perfect community.
I moved here because I couldn’t find one that fully reflected the life Craig and I wanted to build.
So we started building it ourselves.
Not because we thought we had all the answers.
Because we had questions worth exploring.
What if neighbors shared knowledge instead of competing?
What if food, skills, tools, and wisdom flowed more freely?
What if land could regenerate while people did too?
What if community wasn’t built around convenience…
but around intention?
That’s the experiment we’re living every day.
A Note About Shambhala
One expression of these ideas is The Shambhala Collective, the intentional community my husband Craig and I co-founded in the hills of East Tennessee.
Shambhala is our living laboratory—a place where we’re exploring regenerative agriculture, shared knowledge, mutual aid, ecological stewardship, and what it means to build community with intention.
It isn’t a blueprint.
It isn’t a destination.
It’s one example of what’s possible when people choose to stop waiting for the “perfect” community and begin cultivating one instead.
Along the way, we’ve been deeply inspired by communities like Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon, the global Transition Town movement, and the decades of wisdom shared through the Foundation for Intentional Community (IC.org). Their work helped us realize that there isn’t one right model for community—only the invitation to create one that reflects your own values, place, and purpose.
You don’t need forty acres to practice Community Sovereignty.
You don’t need to move across the country.
You don’t even need to call it an “intentional community.”
Maybe it starts with knowing your neighbors.
Sharing a garden.
Starting a homeschool co-op.
Hosting a monthly book circle.
Teaching a skill.
Learning one.
Gathering around a kitchen table.
The form isn’t what matters.
The intention is.
My hope isn’t that you’ll build our community.
It’s that you’ll feel inspired to cultivate your own.)
Community doesn’t have to look like Shambhala.
It might look like…
A neighborhood garden.
A homeschool co-op.
A local mutual aid network.
A monthly women’s circle.
A book club.
A church.
A Transition Town.
A group of friends learning to preserve food together.
A family that finally starts eating dinner around the same table again.
The form doesn’t matter.
The intention does.
Community isn’t a place. It’s something we practice creating.
I don’t believe everyone is meant to live at Shambhala.
I do believe everyone deserves to experience the kind of belonging, mutual support, and shared purpose that intentional community makes possible.
My hope isn’t that you’ll build our community.
It’s that you’ll help cultivate your own.