My squatting experiences have ranged in style and approach over a period of years and, now, decades. These various self-acquired living spaces have high levels of variants in how and to what level of comfort one occupies unused housing. For example, some, mostly younger, 19-24 year-old kids from the scene had invited me to live in an approximately 4500-square-foot Craftsman-style three-bedroom house in San Diego in 1994. The house and its small yard were not being sold or upgraded in the near future, so there was a long period between the eviction of the prior tenants and the interested buyers commencing any sort of large-scale construction on the house. This combination allotted us a year-long window to occupy, improve, and simply enjoy this classic turn-of-the-century masterpiece. With running hot water and kitchen, we worked, studied, and called Middletown home. Candles, lamps, flashlights, and music make for a great combination after all.

Perhaps the best squats of all are the ones built in or around trees! Trees are after all the home of several thousand species and subspecies of life forms. I am now added to that list of creatures who enjoy living life in a tree. Our place (my partners being eco-warriors from the whole of the Americas) consisted of a network of trees, both tall (200 feet or more!) and rotund (25 feet in circumference). The tree we had our kitchen set up in was a blessing within a blessing, with a living area of 175 feet where we boiled water, baked cookies, fried, and heated food for months supplying nourishment to a nearby tree-sit action, as well as feeding our own appetite-endowed mountain-dwelling selves.

In November and December of 1999, during the Seattle revolution, housing or sheltering 100 plus per night had to be and was a reality. Easily, a several-story building was found, unoccupied, and available to be converted to itinerant housing which eventually would be turned over to the city of Seattle for subsidized public housing. This particular militant seizure of shelter property by unaffiliated bet well-equipped people was stellar in its example of community being reclaimed, refurbished, and re-used by those most qualified to improve or simply enjoy the vast space left in limbo by landlords and banks.

These spaces lie in cities, and countryside, both globally and locally. Also, I think it is important to acknowledge the self-awareness involved in global reclaiming - as a part of all that is, which is to say every living, sacred, vibrating being in our lives. It is a great motivator that we respect and cherish the awesome aspects of human, and non-human, if our theses concur them as part of the Declaration of Human Rights.

Shelter (self-autonomous) is the right of EVERY LIVING HUMAN BEING. I believe this makes a good case for squatter�s rights in general, not to mention the variance of life experiences, the gestalt exercise of keeping personal space sacred, as well as allowing for the self-expression and dignity of others as we go about our life, living, and rebirth in these times of limitless possibility.

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