Tags
building community, community, Diana Schwenk, family, Mother Teresa, peace, strength, teams, thrive
Mother Teresa 1985 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” Mother Teresa
What is community?
Quite simply, community is a group of people who live, work and/or play together.
Communities consist of neighbourhoods, work teams, families and clubs, etc.
Healthy community is:
A safe place where each member can respectfully be uniquely themselves;
where disagreements are OK because each person is loved;
where each individual is recognized for the gifts they bring to the table;
where others need us and we can count on them when we’re in need;
a deep understanding, based on experience, that together we can weather any storm.
I want to be more intentional about building community.
I want my family, my team to know I’ve got their backs.
I want to know they’ve got mine.
I want to really listen without judgment.
I want to build people up, not tear them down.
I want to be part of something bigger than myself.
Let’s face it. We need each other.
Is community important to you?
What are you doing to build it where you live?
talktodiana 
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Thanks for passing by.
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My pleasure, thank you for passing by!
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Community. This is a wonderful post, and timely. We all actually NEED a sense of community, you know, because the alternative is isolation. Isolation, even just FEELING unsupported, or say, buoyed, by a community – it slowly kills.
Excellent post.
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Well thank you very much! People need people. It’s as simple as that. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. 🙂
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I adore this post ~ thank you so much. Yesterday I met a new neighbour (to me) an elderly woman with a walker recovering from a knee replacement, stopping to compliment my garden. I delighted in conversing with her for 15 minutes and asking her name (which I promptly wrote on my kitchen calendar to help me remember). Now I look forward to seeing her again around the block and asking how her knee is coming along. I find that there are many common things we enjoy and can build community around, such as a shared joy of gardening, or dogs (dogs parks foster many friendships), and music – for example. Your post here lifts my heart and inspires me to do even more to build community. Thank you again Diana! Hugs, Gina
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Thank you so much for stopping by Gina and leaving such a warm and encouraging comment. Have an awesome weekend!
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Hey Gina’s PFP – I love this what you say here. You really would have put warmth in your neighbour’s heart, & that is no less, NO less than good, truly good. This is just lovely, Gina.
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To be a little cliché and to borrow a well known quote, no man (or woman!) is an island! We all want to be part of something bigger, to make a difference in other people’s lives and to let other’s know when they’ve made a difference in our own! Thanks for this post!
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yes. I think those are basic human needs. 🙂
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We had such an amazing school community where I worked; unfortunately, budget cuts forced its closure. Sigh. I know I’m moving into another wonderful school, but I will miss what we worked so hard to build together over the years. Community is SOOO important:)
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I bet it’s like moving away from family! I worked at the same organization for 20 years. It was in my blood, part of my DNA…takes a while to fill a void like that. 🙂
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We moved to a fabulous little town last summer and I really want to do more to be involved in the community, but I honestly just haven’t. That has to change.
Husbandio thinks I should be an MP. I told him I wasn’t political and he said, “But you want to make this a better place! That’s all you NEED!”
Hmmm.
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Hmmm…maybe he’s got something there! Would love to hear what you do when you do it!
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Great post! I am much better at creating and engaging with community in my proffessional life than in my personal life. Maybe I need to work on that. Thanks for the thoughtful post!
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Thanks and thank you for your comment. I think I’m better at it at work as well. But that’s where we spend most of our awake time, isn’t it?
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True…and sometimes after a day full of building community at work, I need to disconnect at home. Thanks for making me feel better about it! 🙂
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communities don’t exist in a vacuum, usually they evolve around a person who acts as the catalyst. That seed then can grow, but it takes someone to start.
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Agreed!
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where i am in Chicago, it empties out — kids to school/camp, both parents to work, noone really :”lives” here. Modern life chases many things, but comes at a cost.
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so true….we are very busy but not satisfied…something seems to be missing…and I suspect a lot of the time, it’s meaningful connection.
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it’s almost as if we lost the how of it.
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or why…why it is important
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exactly, it makes so much more when we connect. But you have to give up some autonomy, maybe that’s why it is out of favor in the US.
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and any other first world country! It’s about me not us….
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yes, great wealth causes hubris.
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Hubris? What does that mean?
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pride, or arrogance
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pride, or arrogance, especially in cultures. Too much success can cause difficulty.
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I guess I live in a pretty safe and comfortable community but to be honest I have never given it any thought until now reading this post. I have lived here in these townhouses for 24yrs yrs and the townhouses are like a little community we all know each other and keep and eye on each other homes. I park my car on the front lawn and never lock the car my daughter when she is here never locks her car either and I have even gone out and left the house not only unlocked but the door open (not on purpose) but when I go home nothing had been touched everything was fine………..
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It sounds like a wonderful neighbourhood that just organically grew or became healthy community. You must love living there! Thank you for stopping by and sharing your story Jo-Anne!
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Because I have moved so much, I have as a consequence never felt ‘community’…and what it stands for. I have no real experience of it.
The word can also frighten me.
Why?
Because it means you become a part of something. You become close. Too close.
But deep down inside…I know it means ‘home’…and I’m still looking.
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Yes, in many ways I’m still looking too….You sure seem to have a close family (your brother, dad, daughter) from what I read in your blog.I can imagine how moving a lot can throw you off your kilter though…I hope you find home soon…
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I know that feeling of having a community makes my life more complete. The support of friends and sharing thier lives is so important that I feel a huge missing piece in my life when I neglect it. For a while I was having monthly get togethers with many of my female friends. We had a wonderul time but, life being what it is, it seemed to fall on the person who wanted/needed it most (me) to do all of the arranging. I see all of these people individually, but they tell me they miss our group pot lucks. Maybe it just takes one person caring enough to create that feeling and accepting the responsibility of making it happen? Hmm maybe I should pick up the phone? Thanks for the inspiration.
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Wow you arranged that? A potluck with a bunch of girlfriends sounds awesome! But I can imagine how hard it would be to arrange it, a little like herding cats to get a day that works for all/most of them!
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Herding cats! What a visual and very true. I’ve never heard that expression before. Thanks for the smile.
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🙂 Hahaha that’s what organizing meetings with more than two people always feels like to me!
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