Building Community From the Inside Out

By Jeremy R. Werner

Amidst the profound changes that are occurring on the planet right now, it is important for us to come to a deeper understanding of community and our role in it.  As the Hopi advise us, know where your food comes from, know where your water comes from, and know your community.  But what is community?  According to Dictionary.com, the word community may be defined as:

1. A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. A locality inhabited by such a group.
3. A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.

It seems simple enough to understand the concept of community, but what really holds it together?  What is the social glue that allows us to be interdependent individuals within a larger dynamic group with a shared intention?

In my experience, mutual respect and receptivity lay the foundation for the development of a cohesive, life-sustaining community.  By respect I mean the ability to identify, validate and value one’s own humanness (i.e. one’s needs, feelings, thoughts, desires, expressions) and that of another.  Respect implies the understanding that we are all human and share basic human needs and rights.

By receptivity I mean the ability to perceive and experience openly that which is present both internally and externally.  This includes the ability to listen to another with an open heart and mind, as well as to the ability to listen to one’s own inner voices. 

When we come together in a state of mutual respect and receptivity, we are able to express ourselves naturally, spontaneously and authentically in self-affirming ways.  Through right relationship, the circuitry of communication is completed, and we are able to live more fully and support the ongoing development of ourselves and others.  Indeed, our interpersonal relationships are both the seeds and the fertile soil for our communities.

It seems clear, then, that we must each take on the personal responsibility to develop our personal boundaries and sense of self-worth and to cultivate mutual respect and receptivity in relationship.  We need to FEEL ourselves deeply.  We need to FEEL ourselves in the presence of another.  Thoughts about feelings lead us to a dead end.  We need to connect with our feelings intimately and experientially.  When we do, doorways open to deeper knowledge of self, other and life itself. 

So, let’s build our communities from the inside out by knowing ourselves more and more every day and practicing mutual respect and receptivity within right relationship.  We need each other, and together we have great potential for co-creating a new world based on equality.  Let’s do our part out there… and do our inner work, too!

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