Community
“a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”
Over the years I’ve been a part of many different communities…all served their purpose…all were a value to me for a time…all eventually morphed into new and different communities. Growing up I was part of three communities: family, neighbors, and church.
My family included my parents and three brothers…it also included my dad’s family who all (but one) lived within a mile radius of us. Holidays and special occasions were always spent at my grandparents house just over the hill from us. With 12 cousins and four sets of aunts and uncles, these get-togethers would be filled with lots of laughter and chaos.
My childhood neighborhood consisted of about 1,000 ft of one street, with around 10 houses on either side…most of them were duplexes. Except for our house, which my dad built in 1951-2, most of the homes were built by the local wire mill years before to house their workers. We kids in this neighborhood—a there were a lot of us—were part of the baby boom of the 50s and 60s…with more boys than girls. We were blessed with being able to play outside up and down our street, hang out in each others’ yards/homes, go to school together, and make use of the local pond (swimming in summer, skating in winter). No cell phones. No internet. No streaming TV. The overall look and feel of our neighborhood could easily be an old-fashioned Norman Rockwell painting.
My church was just like you would imagine a small, New England church to look like. I grew up going to church every week (sometimes more) along with my family, extended family, and a lot of my neighbors. At best it could probably hold 125-150 people (Christmas and Easter mostly). My mom was part of the church’s women’s group. My dad did a lot of carpentry work on the premises. When I was around 8 yo, I would volunteer with the nuns to help with the younger summer school kids. The nuns lived in a house to one side of the church. The priests lived in a house on the other side. At least 4-5 times a year, the church would put on a variety of community-building events like the summer pot luck and the strawberry festival. We were involved with all of it.
I feel truly blessed to have been part of all three of these communities. That sense of fellowship and belonging were the foundation of the life I’ve built for myself since then.
How about you? Is community a core value for you?
BTW…here’s what it looked like to begin with …
joyfully,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
bringing sanity to an insane world through the art of mandalas
About the 2024 Mandalas of the Day
Each day I will create and post a mandala inspired by one of 366 “value” words chosen randomly. The objective being to discover for myself which ones would best represent my core values…and by doing so, I hope it inspires you to determine your own.
Mandala of the Day 