This blog is the first iteration of what has now become www.OneCommunityGlobal.org, please visit that site for all the most current details on this project.
Genuine community is the most loving and accepting place humanity is capable of creating. It is a place of comfort, safety, compassion and growth because it is a place of acceptance and appreciation for each other and each other's differences. In genuine community we get to allow who we really are to shine through and be seen.
This page is the most important piece of information in regards to what One Community is about. It describes something that meets all 6 of the human needs, epitomizes and creates elevated levels of consciousness, can't be purchased, and is infinitely more valuable than money. In the words of community making expert Dr. M. Scott Peck in his book The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, "If it is so channeled, life in community may touch upon something perhaps even deeper than joy... what repeatedly draws me into community is something more. When I am with a group of human beings committed to hanging in there through both the agony and the joy of community, I have a dim sense that I am participating in a phenomenon for which there is only one word. I almost hesitate to use it. The word is "glory.""
Peck differentiates "genuine community" as something much deeper than the "community" most of us know as our town, our church, our fraternal organization or our "community of friends." He goes on to say "If we are going to use the word meaningfully we must restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationship go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to rejoice together, mourn together and to delight in each other, make others' conditions our own. "
Everyone creating One Community has experienced this magical feeling of genuine community and we are committed to creating it permanently for people to share, grow and evolve with us, in it. It is our mission and our purpose.
The "soul" of our community is freedom to be who you are without judgement or fear of everyone trying to "fix" you. It is a safe place. It is a place of contemplation and growth. It is a place of consensus. It is a group of all leaders. It is a community transcending the traditional paradigm of society and culture and ascending to new levels of communication, connection and creativity.
One Community is committed to community as a preeminent condition for truly powerful individual growth. As a genuine community our decision making process is done by 100% consensus because we relish the opportunity to discuss our differences and explore higher possibilities that support everyone, resulting in a community growth process. We work in teams and build our communication skills as a way of life, committed to 'nothing in the space,' speaking our hearts and our minds so that others are comfortable to do the same. We recognize that conflict and judgment are not personal and we honor the opinions of others and the diversity of approaches and thought processes that enrich our community.
There are 4 stages of community building and maintenance (pseudo community, chaos, emptiness, genuine community) that we are committed to because each time we traverse them we experience deeper levels of Peck's community "glory" than we ever imagined possible before. This is what creates the profound healing nature of community and the comfort of community being the most loving, creative and joyful place to be. This is what keeps us ever growing, healing and evolving as individuals and as a group and makes it clear that the community we create is the greatest gift we can imagine for ourselves and for the world.
"For the reality is that there can be no vulnerability without risk; and there can be no community without vulnerability; and there can be no peace - ultimately no life - without community." ~ S.M. Peck ~
As the preeminent expert I include here Peck's description of what he considers to be the most salient characteristics of a true community:
- Inclusivity, commitment and consensus: Members accept and embrace each other, celebrating their individuality and transcending their differences. They commit themselves to the effort and the people involved. They make decisions and reconcile their differences through consensus.
- Realism: Members bring together multiple perspectives to better understand the whole context of the situation. Decisions are more well-rounded and humble, rather than one-sided and arrogant.
- Contemplation: Members examine themselves. They are individually and collectively self-aware of the world outside themselves, the world inside themselves, and the relationship between the two.
- A safe place: Members allow others to share their vulnerability, heal themselves, and express who they truly are.
- A laboratory for personal disarmament: Members experientially discover the rules for peacemaking and embrace its virtues. They feel and express compassion and respect for each other as fellow human beings.
- A group that can fight gracefully: Members resolve conflicts with wisdom and grace. They listen and understand, respect each others' gifts, accept each others' limitations, celebrate their differences, bind each others’ wounds, and commit to a struggle together rather than against each other.
- A group of all leaders: Members harness the “flow of leadership” to make decisions and set a course of action. It is the spirit of community itself that leads and not any single individual.
- A spirit: The true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love, wisdom and power. Members may view the source of this spirit as an outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher Will.
