Lucy Beck		Debbie Ramsdell
	Tanya and Matthew		Marjan van den Belt and Robert Costanza
	Marlee, Rick & Nina		The Devine Family
	Per, Jenny, Solvei & Aren Eisenman		Cara Taussig and Marty Gawron
	Dennis and Trisa Gay		Marc Greenblatt
	Shelia Kerr		Carina Cartelli and Joe Lasek
	Melissa Mcginty		Sarah Sinnott
	Elizabeth Storey		Larilee Suiter
	Peter van Schaick		Mary Van Vleck
	Clark and Suzanne Hinsdale		Jonathan, Lorelei and Finn Atwood
	Gordon Gieg and Amy Snyder

We have spent most of our lives separated by time and distance, yet joined by strands of common experience. Looking back on our lives up until now, we see that while we have lived much of our lives at a distance, Carina and I have always been joined by strands of shared experience. While Joe spent his childhood on a dairy farm in northeast Pennsylvania, Carina was spending a good part of hers just across the Delaware River in the equally beautiful Catskills of central New York. An affinity for rural living was instilled in both of us from a young age, and carried with us even into the later years of our lives spent on opposite sides of the Hudson River in New Jersey and New York City, respectively.

Enriched by our experiences in all of these places, the rivers of fate carried us into a common current joining at Cornell University. There, we were each preparing for a career in Medicine that ultimately lead us to medical school in Syracuse, New York. It was at this time that we made our decision to establish our common destiny in a rural setting, a setting that would allow the full expression of our values of community, closeness and cooperation.

Burlington, Vermont beckoned to us from across Lake Champlain, and we heeded the call to move there to pursue our residency training in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, respectively. During our training we welcomed our first child into the world. Alyssana, now 3 years old, has been our brightest light and our greatest joy. Living in a community in which she is well known and nurtured; where she may grow up among friends, both young and old, may be the most compelling reasons drawing us to co-housing. Of course the sublimely peaceful, bucolic setting of Common Pastures, so similar to what we cherished as children, has also been influential in our decision to become members of this particular community.

After many months of planning and many more months of construction, we recently completed our single family home at Common Pastures. Fulfilling our dream of building a timber frame home that is Energy Star 5-star-plus rated and heated/cooled by a geothermal system has been especially exciting for us.

Flying high after this wonderful experience, and to top it all off, we recently celebrated what is becoming an especially auspicious time of year for us. Almost exactly 2 years to the day that we became partners at Common Pastures on the summer solstice of 2005 and one year after we purchased our lot here in June of 2006, we welcomed our son Brahm, the newest member of our family (and our community), into the world. Carina, Alyssana and I are extremely grateful for the love and support our neighbors have given our family during this time of transition. It really is everything we had hoped for when we first discovered Common Pastures 3 years ago.

The further we venture on this latest leg of our journey, the more optimistic we are that our life at Common Pastures will allow us to actualize our most deeply-held values and realize a bright future of shared purpose and individual growth.