The Sanctuary Communities Our Vision

By Tim Ryan

When Iva and I moved our family from South Florida to Macon County in 2003, we looked upon our new home as a refuge, a sanctuary, from the stress-inducing atmosphere of so many of America’s metropolitan areas. But it wasn’t escape that drew us. It was the opportunity for a different kind of engagement – engagement with the natural setting, with the traditions of an historic community, with other citizens who prefer small town mountain life to the annoyances of too many hours spent in cars and in places too soulless to be called real communities.

A real community has to know and honor the unique place in which it finds itself. It knows where it fits in the natural world and in the built environment shaped by local tradition. You know you’ve achieved community with a new place if it feels as if it belongs with the best of the region’s old places, as if it’s always been there.

That was the goal we set for ourselves when we began The Sanctuary Communities. We invite you to learn more about ourselves, The Sanctuary at Mountain Grove and The Sanctuary Village. Come and visit and one day you too will call The Sanctuary Communities home.