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We don’t need to travel to Mars or the Moon to build a new community. We have a real chance to become a new community right here on Earth.
It may appear to be opposite, but we are going beyond polarization and marginalization. That’s because it is nature’s way to curate what is most useful and valuable from the past and systematically integrate the lessons of our failures into the meshwork of ‘the new’ to serve the wellbeing of the Whole. Nature is always pruning away the bits that don’t benefit survival – and polarization, isolation, we know, has no survival benefit. The largest, most diverse communities are the ones that thrive.
Even so – we often feel isolated and alone, like the world is against us. That is an illusion. The Earth is always ‘for us’, because togetherness is essential to thriving. The problem may be our very narrow view of community. We may think it only consists of people who look, act and think like us. In truth, the whole world is our community. Community is every connection we have that sustains Life. As a wise woman recently taught me, “We don’t build community; it builds us.” We each exist in a set of relationships that shape us, individually and as a species.
If I don’t feel I have a community that understands me, cares about me or encourages me, I am likely to wither, like a flower without sun or rain. I will feel lost, powerless. The quality of our communities requires more thoughtfulness than we usually give to it. If we are part of a community that blames, excludes or dehumanizes those who do not look like us or agree with us, we are adding to the trauma of the world, not meeting the common need for safety and peace. We can help transform communities that do not serve Life or join one that does – what Thich Nhat Hanh and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King called blessed community.
Thankfully, we do have ways to find others who want to live consciously. And luckily, many groups and communities do exist, based on principles like these, and many more are forming. We explore some of them in this edition. Each essay, video and image holds a part of the blessed community. Find the parts that resonate and inspire you. Don’t let anything stop you from belonging to a community that nourishes you, one that lives in harmony and understanding.
You can begin right now. You are an integral part of the Kosmos community and we are so very grateful.