Thursday, September 26, 2019
Community is where they know your name.
At Friendsview we know each other’s names…
because we wear name tags!
Does that disqualify us as community?
Absolutely not!
Community has been in my thoughts recently as I reflect on our day-to-day life at Friendsview. Definitions of community include shared values, interests, activities, relationships, and space—to name a few.
After retirement my husband, Dale, and I discovered our community was shrinking. Feeling this loss motivated us to join the Friendsview community, giving us the opportunity to share, innovate, collaborate, and learn from other community members.
We humans are social beings created to live and work with others in a positive community. Extraverts (me) and introverts (Dale) can both thrive in community. Too much interaction? Kick back and hang out in your residence or walk our Hess Creek Canyon to recharge. Or maybe you recharge by walking out your door and interacting with others.
Do you love gardening? Golf? Woodworking? Arts and sewing? Travel? Event planning? Music? In a community with nearly 500 residents, your area of interest likely already exists, but if it doesn’t—create it. I did and so have others.
Dale and I came to Friendsview with no credentials; we’re not Quakers, not George Fox graduates, not related to anyone, not from Newberg. The Friendsview community turned a blind eye to all of that—but not to us!
Dale’s younger brother died recently in a weather-related automobile accident. When we were in need of support our Friendsview community reached out to care for us, comfort us. We experienced a sense of belonging.
I recently read David Brooks’s new book, The Second Mountain. He writes: “A community is healthy when relationships are felt deeply, when there are histories of trust, a shared sense of mutual belonging, norms of mutual commitments, habits of mutual assistance and real affection from one heart and soul to another.”
Henri Nouwen challenges us with these words: “Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own. The question, therefore, is not ‘How can we make community?’ but ‘How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?’”
The Friendsview community is filled with giving hearts!
