Where Have All the Ex-members gone? by ex-member Marsha
Jon and Marsha: Soyfoods in the City

Jon, Cora and I left Twin Oaks in the fall of 1997 after 9, 5, and 10 years of membership/kidship , respectively. We moved to Charlottesville to try out the city & a quieter familial life and start a business with ex-member, Janus.

We first moved into a neighborhood walking distance to several other ex-ers (Vicky, Todd, Harper, Alexis, Phaedrus and Janus) and continued that pattern with our move to our current house (where we live across the street from Janus and Danny, around the corner from Ann and Logan, and a few blocks from Sharon). Our lives revolve around our kids, Cora (9) and Ben (2 1/2) and growing our business, Sunergia Soyfoods. Cora is a 4th grade soccer enthusiast and social butterfly. I sense that her first five years spent at Twin Oaks have made her very at ease with and tuned into people. Ben, born since we left Twin Oaks, gives me both a new appreciation for all theassistance I received parenting Cora in a communal childcare system as well as a sigh of relief that I don't have to deal with all the challenges of communal childcare now.

The values, skills and worldview we developed in our years at Twin Oaks affect and shape our everyday lives now. This is apparent in our love for our garden, appreciation of our compost, energy-saving zeal, and our choices in how we raise our kids, as well as choices we make in running our business. We miss many features of the Oaks including exercise from walking on a daily / hourly basis and living in a park-like setting with little concern for crime. I'm deeply appreciative of all I learned at Twin Oaks in terms of skills, positive paradigms for working with others, and about myself.

In Community,
Marsha