You can think of a community as a kind of garden. If it’s well tended, it’s fruitful and nourishing. But if it’s ignored and neglected, it fails to provide what is necessary for growth and happiness.
So how do we tend this garden we call community? How do we cultivate it so that it enriches the lives of those who live within it? How do we make sure it’s well fed, watered and weeded?
The way to cultivate community involves the same approach you take to a garden: commitment, attention and responsiveness.
First, we must make a commitment. We have to decide how important it is to put our plans into action and follow through.
Once we decide to make the commitment, we need to focus our attention on the various elements of our community – the people, the resources and the time required to accomplish the necessary tasks.
Once we understand the needs of our community we need to act — we need to consistently apply what we know.
What makes this undertaking both challenging and fulfilling is that we must do this together, in concert with others. It takes a community to make a community. It takes a group of people who are committed, attentive and responsive. Finding those people is the first step. Staying connected to them is an ongoing adventure.
Caring Community Voices
Frankly Speaking
In this podcast we discuss honesty in relationships as seen as a courageous spiritual practice and a necessity for trust-building and the circumstances, if any, where we might feel justified to withhold information, opinions or feelings in a way that could be considered deceptive but also more compassionate
Community Support for Addiction
How can we show compassion for those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction at the same time we ensure safety and insist on members keeping agreements of the community? An in depth discussion with Philip Be’er, community mediation consultant and author of LEARNING TO LOVE: Your Guide to PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT More information about Philip Be’er References […]
A Community Response to Sexual Abuse
In this podcast we’ll be discussing how we can prevent, effectively disclose, and/or confront sexual abuse within residential intentional communities with Philip Be’er, community mediation consultant and author of LEARNING TO LOVE: Your Guide to PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT The Caring Community Voices podcast presented here is for general informational purposes and the views and opinions of […]
Creating a Safe Space for Diversity
How can we create a welcoming environment for racial and ethnic minorities within residential intentional communities? Is it okay and sometimes helpful to have all-minority ICs? With consultants Edward Troy and Elliott Cisneros. The Caring Community Voices podcast presented here is for general informational purposes and the views and opinions of guests and participants are solely their own […]