Getting Creative
So there I was, thinking to myself: Why not send out the bat signal on social media and Craigslist and wherever else you can think of to advertise that we’re looking for land - renegade style. So. Boom! This is us getting creative.
Here’s what I put together for posting far & wide to fling out into the beyond:
Local Montana Couple Looking for Land
Who: Mike & Nicole Dunn, two local Montanans who are both ordained spiritual leaders in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village mindfulness tradition
What: Bare land; no structures or services required; ideally at least 10-acres & at least partially wooded; able to be accessed year-round
Where: 30-60 min radius of Missoula
When: This summer!
Why: To live on year round and also build our aspiring mindfulness practice center Empty Mountain, rooted in the Plum Village tradition
Price Range: $125-135k
Synopsis: We’ve been actively looking for land for a number of years but have amped up our search since the summer of 2020. We’ve hit the ground running this spring (2021) but land for sale is both moving quickly and there are limited parcels available on the market in our price range. We are preparing to sell our house here in Missoula to pay for the land and if we can operate in the $125-135k price range, we will be able to purchase the land outright and still have a small buffer to help us build a small home structure and develop the land. Our plan is to start hosting rustic days of mindfulness (weekly or monthly) straight away and to offer donation-based programing open to all as soon as possible, such as camping retreats, until we can build a larger indoor community meeting space.
A little bit about us: For those who don’t know us, we’re a couple of 42-year-olds who’ve been married for 21-years and have been practitioners in Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness tradition for almost 20-years. We are deeply committed to helping others on the path of practice and aspire to be a place of welcoming, refuge, and community building. Empty Mountain is the name we’ve given to our aspiring practice center and while we are not a non-profit as of yet, it is our hope to move in that direction, once we’re a little further along in the process. We are full of heart and full of desire to see this vision come to fruition for the benefit of all beings.
Contact: If you have land you might be interested in selling (or perhaps leasing) to us, we would greatly appreciate hearing from you. Please contact us through our website (through our contact tab!).
