Yesterday, I was prompted to begin a conversation on ‘community’!  What it means!  How it’s different from just ‘belonging’ or ‘neighboring’ or otherwise ‘hangin’ out!

I started with the idea of ‘transitions’ as a common ground for why women have joined us here at AWP - or why women come together at all! 

Why do we bond?  I think I mentioned watching my goldfish all summer as they ‘huddled’ underneath an ornament as protection and a little ‘fishy’ comfort!

We know that we bond because that’s the way humans are made.  Our Creator made us for relationship - with Him and with each other.  A well-publicized study done shortly after WWII revealed that babies orphaned by the war often failed to thrive and died simply because they did not get held by other humans as they needed.  They got physical nourishment, but lacked the emotional nurturance they required to survive and be healthy.  Quite simply, they didn’t get held, cuddled, talked to as they needed.  The cues that they were ‘loved’ were missing and they simply died for lack of them.

So bonding is a part of our DNA - a part of our basic human need for relationship and companionship.  I believe in the beginning, Papa said, “it isn’t good for man to be alone!”

It isn’t good for any of us to be alone!  We all need to communicate with others.  Notice the root word of community and communicate are one and the same.  Webster describes “communicate” as to “impart”, “participate” and an archaic version, “share” (I don’t happen to think that’s archaic at all!).

So perhaps community occurs to meet our need to “impart, participate” and “share”. 

Do we have to be of one mind and heart in order to form community?  I don’t think so.  I have a wonderful personal physician (with whom I have a check up in a few hours) who is east Indian and a devout Hindi.  We have, over the years, ‘warred’ on a number of issues simply explained by the differences in our cultures.  We adore each other and have been friends for over 25 years! 

During a quite heated discussion on a very sensitive societal issue, we both discovered that our differences were simply a matter of culture and ethnic differences.  Our agreement on that day was that “our mutual respect for each other was more important than the differences that divided us, so we agreed to disagree!” 

Think of the organizations you belong to!  Do you experience a sense of community when you’re together?  Do you ‘hang out’ with individual members or small groups of members at times other than meetings?  Are members of those organizations the first you’d call if in a serious need for assistance?  Can you trust the organization as a whole and most of those who form the organization?

Does it feel safe to you?  Community ought to be a safe haven for us.  Because we commune with each other at a level that transcends differences and meets at the level of our common humanity!

What’s this have to do with transition(s)? 

Well, when we travel from one life season to another - regardless of how traumatic the transition might be - we should find the support, assistance and emotional nurturance we need to step over that which divides the seasons! 

I think it’s in those times of transition that we discover where true community is!  It is often said that in a crisis, we discover who our true friends are and I think that’s true of where we decide community is for us.

How do we know if we’ve found true community?  And is it different for each woman?  Can we experience true community and communication with women more ‘chronologically maturing’ than we are?  Is community a reality, a mindset or an attitude?

Now that’s a mouthful!  Tomorrow, I’ll tackle these ‘thorny’ issues and say a few works about my personal experience of community and communication and try to answer the questions I’ve just posed!

In the meantime, I had another funny from my dear theater friend with whom I share a common first name.  Her delightfully funny photos follow these someone serious thoughts!  So that I leave you with something to chuckle about the rest of this Monday back in the marketplace!

Have an awesome day with much love and many blessings!

  Linda