In 2006, after settling a significant piece of litigation, I decided that I would build my new home base in Hickory Valley, Tennessee, the small farming community where I have lived since 2000 next to my cousin and her family.
I and the Solari team started Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC and the Solari Report. I enjoy my work and very much enjoy the people we serve. Our clients and customers are located across the country and our subscribers come from around the world. Our team is also located around the county and, as we operate virtually, our businesses don’t have to be tied to a given place.
Contractors worked off and on for several years to reconstruct and paint the buildings on one property and tear down the house on the second one. With the help of my neighbors, we planted orchards of fruit and nut trees and a garden, installed a generator and freezers and did many things to invest in making my two small properties our permanent base camp.
I bought a little market on the highway that goes through town in the hopes of starting a fresh food market. The neighbor who was going to start an organic farm next door went to Hawaii instead. Others interested in organic food left. The few local farmers who remained were committed to growing GMO food. So the market has stayed empty.
Last month, the head of the local Chamber of Commerce (we are a member) let me know that my cousin had negotiated a deal to install a cell tower directly behind my property and another was going in along the front of my property on the property of a friend. My cousin had declined to tell me. I assume she was waiting for the permit to be issued so that I would not have time to oppose it. My friend had also declined to say a word.
The truth be told, I was not interested in opposing either one. My cousin’s desire to profit on a cell tower had come up originally in 2006. At the time, I had explained that I would leave if one went in behind me. Apparently, several neighbors were competing for the right to be the one to have the cell tower on their property.
After much thought about the whole matter in 2006, I decided along with another neighbor to buy a gazebo for the town. I thought doing so was the best way to demonstrate to my neighbors why we are supposed to spend money to build our town up, rather than make money doing things that harm the quality of life. Right after the gazebo came, plans for the cell tower were cancelled. One of my neighbors said that the angels wanted a place to hang out in Hickory Valley and once they got the gazebo, they arranged for the cell tower to be shelved. Everyone else said it was the economy slowing down.
Last year, a private group proposed putting a cell tower next to our City Hall. That was voted down. I was at the town council meeting and stated why I thought it would be harmful. The only way I could honestly attest to the safety issues (as a matter of law you are not allowed to consider the health impact in a municipal forum) was to say that I would leave if it happened.
So now the cell tower plans are back. Some people want cell service. Some do not understand what it will do to the historic look of our town, what it will and can do to the electromagnetic field and how that could impact the health of the citizens, the plants and the livestock. The developers can now attract wealthy people into estates promising cheaper high speed internet and phone service. The estates will not see the cell towers.
I have seen many honey bees this year when I go over to see Franklin Sanders in mid-Tennessee. I have yet to see one here. The area has now converted to almost all GMO crops, and the farmers who remain are on a treadmill orchestrated by Monsanto, the banks and the federal subsidy programs. I wonder what will happen with two more towers.
My friend who is leasing her property to AT&T for one of the cell towers traditionally organizes our Day of Prayer. Hickory Valley has enjoyed years of people praying for our town. That is what you can feel here – the power of prayer. Having driven across the country many times, I have seen thousands of small rural communities with 3 or more cell towers. The power of prayer was gone from all of them.
I won’t be here when the towers go operational. I am in the process of putting my properties on the market. I will keep my office base here until I sell them and then probably move it over to mid-Tennessee. Let’s see where the road leads.
One of my favorite sermons is called “Faith, Hope and Charity” by TD Jakes. I have listened to it dozens of times over the years and expect to listen to it many more. The scriptural reference is to the famous passage from Corinthians: ” And now abideth faith, hope, charity, but the greatest of these is charity.” The sermon focus is on the word “abideth” – of the importance of building your life around things that you can count on, on things that stay.
In it Jakes describes how he was pushed out of West Virginia. At one point he realizes that God wanted him to move. Since he was so rooted by nature, he would not. And so God had to get dramatic and force him out. The point was, what was happening was not about things going wrong in West Virginia. There was some place else he was supposed to be. The future was calling him. His move to Dallas was a great success.
It is the same with me. There are places I want to go, people I want to spend more time with and things I want to do. I want to spend time in California and Montana. To find the best investment opportunities for Solari Investment Advisors and report on them for the Solari Report, I want to travel and live in numerous countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe. For Solari to grow, I want to meet and connect with people far and wide.
In the process of grieving and letting go, I was feeling badly about how much time and money I had invested in my properties here. I spoke with Saskia Esslinger of Red Edge Design. She told me that many people she had spoken to about growing edible gardens had the same concern. They did not want to invest in their property for fear of having to leave. It struck me that this trend was not so wonderful. What happens if we all stop investing in building up our places?
Then David Liechty, who has been working with Solari, told me about what had happened to the Mormon settlers when they were moving from place to place across North America before they settled in Salt Lake City.
The settlers were counseled by the Lord to invest in the land as if they were going to be there for a long time even when they were staying only a short time. There were stories of Mormons planting wheat in the Spring right before they moved on, so the settlers that came afterward would have food to harvest and eat.
He pointed me to a beautiful passage in the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants:
“And thus I grant unto this people a privilege of organizing themselves according to my laws.
And I consecrate unto them this land for a little season, until I, the Lord, shall provide for them otherwise, and command them to go hence:
And the hour and the day is not given unto them, wherefore let them act upon this land as for years, and this shall turn unto them for their good.”
~Doctrine and Covenants 51:15-17
The next evening, I sat out on the porch with my dog. The land around my home was so beautiful that for quite some time I was content to just sit and drink it all in as the sun went down and the mist settled across the trees, gardens and flowers. I wanted to soak in so much beauty that this time and place would remain in my memory forever. I gave thanks for the chance to care for this land and to know it.
As it grew dark, the lightning bugs took over, mysteriously flashing twinkles of light in the darkness as the crickets sang. In my heart, I welcomed in what my friend Caroline Casey calls “Jetino” – the powerful magic that comes in dangerous times.
If I should come and stay for a month or two or three in the place where you live and plant an almond or lemon tree before moving on, you will know why.