05/20/2026
Last week at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, PA, our team stepped into a world that felt entirely symbiotic.
Not perfect. Not polished. But deeply human.
Everything there seemed connected — the people, the land, the work, the rhythm of the day. Everyone had a role to play, and every role mattered. Someone rode a bike to make deliveries. Someone planted food in the garden. Someone washed dishes after meals. Someone wove textiles. Someone organized the library. And somehow, none of it felt transactional. It felt communal. Interdependent.
People were given responsibilities based on their abilities, interests, and capacity — not forced into molds but nurtured into purpose. You could feel the difference immediately.
As people worked together, they learned from each other. Connection wasn’t created through small talk or networking; it grew through shared purpose. Through routine. Through care. Through simply existing alongside one another day after day.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
What brings you joy?
At Camphill, the answers were everywhere.
Isabel singing with the songbirds as she pedaled her tricycle through the hills.
Johnathan quietly working on the farm — planting, weeding, resting when he needed to, then returning again.
People who came for a single year and ended up staying for fifty.
There were schedules, structure, responsibilities — but also flexibility and humanity.
An understanding that sometimes someone needs extra time, extra support, extra accommodation. And instead of treating that as inconvenience, the community simply adjusted around it.
What struck me most was how attuned everyone seemed to each other.
There was a peace there that came from slowness and shared responsibility. People gathered over apples during breaks. They created mosaics and textiles in shared homes. They balanced work with leisure, productivity with rest. It felt less like “care” in the institutional sense and more like companionship — the daily practice of tending to one another’s humanity.
The line between caregiver and cared-for blurred constantly… Click here to read the entire blog: https://manyhandslc.org/home/f/a-glimpse-into-our-future
To learn more about Many Hands, please visit our website: https://manyhandslc.org/home
