By Tom Braford
Heartache comes not from what is present but from what is not. It comes not from what does not exist but from knowing that it is out there just beyond our reach.
For some it is a fleeting experience of ecstasy that somehow seems illusive. For others it is a long-established way of life that has gone missing over time or suddenly. Some experience it as the loneliness of the amorphous crowd. Others, as a total lack of solitude that comes with a life in the spotlight under the microscope. What unites us all is our primordial longing for forever expanding and deepening beloved communities of proximity.
It is actually part of our DNA. Like it or not, we are a social species. We may feel a need to wander for a while and experience our aloneness and even loneliness, but always there is the call like a beacon in our hearts to come home to community. Not just any community of course but the community of our dreams, and there’s the rub.
Turning our dreams into reality requires intentionality. It requires cooperation. It requires trusting ourselves and trusting others and trusting the fact that as human beings we have an innate ability to create what we want and need. Our deepest fear is not that we are not enough but that we are powerful beyond our wildest dreams.
Our wildest dreams include a species-specific longing for community, starting with the profection of community of proximity. That Beloved Community where over time we come to love our physical neighbors as ourselves and are loved in return.
If you know in your heart of hearts that this is the kind of community that you are already a part of in your wildest dreams, then please join us in turning those dreams into reality, not just for ourselves as a lonely beacon on the hill, but as a shining example of what is possible for every hill and dale from here to Eternity.
Please join us for a pre-Thanksgiving potluck and Sing-along on Saturday, November 19, beginning at 6:00 pm. Visit www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com for more details and to rsvp.
Contact: Tom & Carol Braford,
braford@sbcglobal.net