At El Jardin de la Vida, we have an appreciation for time. We understand the demands the modern world places us on to be faster, do more, for everything to be more “efficient” and we understand the struggle to escape this pressure. Our goal is to live a lifestyle in which we have an acceptance and appreciation for a slower pace of progress. We accept that instant gratification provides just that- satisfaction for an instant but still leaves us feeling ultimately unfulfilled. However, when we work slowly, thoughtfully on a project the feeling of satisfaction is not fleeting- it is grounding. We aim to provide a space where visitors can retreat from the hectic pace of modernity and explore the gratitude that can be achieved by mindfully working on a task. By allowing our visitors to make a lasting contribution to an evolving space we hope to provide a feeling of connectedness to something larger than any one person.

Essential to our philosophy are choices that value quality over convenience, that work toward global solutions through local actions, and ultimately nurture ourselves and the environment. To achieve these goals we work to minimize our carbon footprint. We are 100% solar powered. We are passionate about natural building. We are striving towards sufficiency off our property. For the things we can not provide we purchase as much as we can from local sources. We work towards creating jobs in our community. We work towards educational projects on both a local and global scale. Many of our goals require daily practice and a long sited vision to achieve. But like all like things in life worth doing we understand that the journey towards achieving these goals is as important as success. We accept that we all are imperfect human beings and as such understand that we must have a balance between ideals and realities but that in no way imperfection diminishes the process. We hope to provide an opportunity for our visitors to learn how they can make small changes that will make their lives feel more meaningful.

We found for ourselves immersion in nature aids the process. The rhythm of the earth can help guide the rhythm of our lives. When removed from the presence of artificial lights our bodies revert to a natural sleep schedule, where we rise with the sun and sleep shortly after dark. Away from the constant motion of the city we suddenly find we have time to watch the natural world as it folds around us. We stop to watch the flight of parrots across the sky, to listen to the monkeys hoot is the distance, to smell the aroma of jasmine blooming. We understand our food takes time to grow and we should equally take time to prepare it and more importantly take the time to savor the fruits of our labor. Nothing about food is naturally "fast" yet in the face of industrialized food we have been taught settle for sub-par food because quick is better than quality. We reject these modern ideas and instead embrace a life style that provides time to mindfully prepare our food with gratitude using seasonal local ingredients.