Until we each reach a deep understanding that we NEED community and live from that it will remain a nice idea until there’s a crisis when suddenly it’s the only thing that matters, for a time.
I say this from a 4year daily experience of community in a small coastal place 40 minutes south of Dunedin, after living 32yrs in Sydney.
I came looking for community along with ideas about how to create it while house-sitting around NZ for 5yrs before choosing to buy a wee crib in this place.
I love cooking, so weekly for the first year, I shared food with the 10 other house residents in my dead end street, many of whom were bemused and told me I didn’t need to do this. I persisted and got to know each household through the conversations I had while they didn’t know them because of an attitude of ‘keeping to ourselves’.
Now I have 4 chooks whose eggs are a great community builder and 4yrs later 4 of us regularly share food from our gardens, our cooking, fishing.
I have bbqs and draw in other neighbours to hopefully slowly build the connections so we can pull together and share our resources, our skills and our time, all of which will be needed I believe in the the times ahead but which now bring a sense of belonging and happiness.
2 of my neighbours have told me I can ring them anytime day or night if I need help.
The fascinating understanding I’ve gleaned from this experience is that I don’t need to have anything in common with my neighbours other than a recognition I need them, in order to be in a heart-lived real community.
Have you seen the amazing mahi that Inspiring Communities does to support place based community building. They've got some really wonderful people involved - unsung heroes who get on and do stuff.
"Inspiring Communities weave connections and collaborations across sectors and communities.
We help make things easier for communities to work in locally-led ways – together. We believe that communities know best about what works for them and what they need to thrive."
Until we each reach a deep understanding that we NEED community and live from that it will remain a nice idea until there’s a crisis when suddenly it’s the only thing that matters, for a time.
I say this from a 4year daily experience of community in a small coastal place 40 minutes south of Dunedin, after living 32yrs in Sydney.
I came looking for community along with ideas about how to create it while house-sitting around NZ for 5yrs before choosing to buy a wee crib in this place.
I love cooking, so weekly for the first year, I shared food with the 10 other house residents in my dead end street, many of whom were bemused and told me I didn’t need to do this. I persisted and got to know each household through the conversations I had while they didn’t know them because of an attitude of ‘keeping to ourselves’.
Now I have 4 chooks whose eggs are a great community builder and 4yrs later 4 of us regularly share food from our gardens, our cooking, fishing.
I have bbqs and draw in other neighbours to hopefully slowly build the connections so we can pull together and share our resources, our skills and our time, all of which will be needed I believe in the the times ahead but which now bring a sense of belonging and happiness.
2 of my neighbours have told me I can ring them anytime day or night if I need help.
The fascinating understanding I’ve gleaned from this experience is that I don’t need to have anything in common with my neighbours other than a recognition I need them, in order to be in a heart-lived real community.
Have you seen the amazing mahi that Inspiring Communities does to support place based community building. They've got some really wonderful people involved - unsung heroes who get on and do stuff.
"Inspiring Communities weave connections and collaborations across sectors and communities.
We help make things easier for communities to work in locally-led ways – together. We believe that communities know best about what works for them and what they need to thrive."
https://inspiringcommunities.org.nz/
PS this post by Rachel Donald (Planet: Critical) develops these themes: https://open.substack.com/pub/platformenterprise/p/building-social-infrastructure