How to Create a Lasting Love
Thursday, 05 January 2012 19:50
Work, lives, and loves that last bring to mind the legacy of architect and visionary, Alfred Boeke. He designed one of the first ecologically sound environmental communities called Sea Ranch in northern California in the 1960s.
Under his leadership, he put together massive environmental studies to preserve native plants, wildlife, soil, and climate, building on only half of the land bought and leaving the other half commonly owned in a natural state. Mr. Boeke built an award-winning community on a ten-mile stretch of seacoast 120 miles north of San Francisco that has continued as an example of enduring excellence. That community has been profoundly conscious of the natural drama of its coastal site, integrating nature into the buildings instead of destroying or changing it to suit developers who would have chosen quantity of homes over quality.
What can we learn from Alfred Boeke?
Using the land and the community as a metaphor for your life...
* Think about...What are your inherent qualities that you can take better care of and keep, that would enhance who you are?
Instead of putting up twice as many houses…
* Do you have areas in your life where you might conserve and preserve what you have ...instead of squandering your talents and gifts? Or do you try to cram too much into too little time and too little space?
And…like the architect who chose to take the braver path...
* Where can you do the right thing for yourself…even if it seems hard?
Sea Ranch has 1700 homes, which sold for $18,000 when they were first built. Today they sell for between $500,000.00 to 2 million.
Maybe we won’t all play on a stage as big as Mr. Boeke did. But in our own way, we can lay our individual claim to a unique identity. We can create a lasting legacy of quality… in the choices we make today.