Magic of community
Tonight I facilitated a community gathering of people in the heart of an area named this year as one of the urban poverty centers in the country. My job was to help them create a proposed list of prioritized environmental options for a planned area school.
We prepared them for the task by creating a 6-month community of practice featuring lectures, tours, and discussions. They did a great job of understanding every technical feature and had no problem articulating priorities. By the way, this was the same group I blogged about earlier this year having no problem describing their collective 20 year vision for their neighborhood.
The most significant part was the non-linear storytelling that cultivated the community created here. It was a beautiful reminder that we get together secondarilyto make communal decisions. We gather primarily to celebrate everyone’s stories - in this case, the stories of parents and children, retired teachers and community leaders, homeowners, and friends.
Community emerges naturally when being becomes more important than doing, trusting that good doing together will always flow from good being together.
