Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Common Ground, Common Goals

Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Common Ground, Common Goals

Years ago when I was pregnant with our first child, someone gave me a copy of Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin.  She was the head of The Farm midwives, but I knew nothing about The Farm at the time, and really knew nothing about the concept of intentional communities.  The idea of community and communal living excited me to the core though.

When our growing family moved from San Diego to Tum Tum, Washington, we encountered several other intentional communities in the area - Tolstoy Farm in Davenport, Washington (still going), and another whose name eludes me, probably because they didn’t survive and had a sketchy moral foundation.  

We were most drawn to and embraced by a faith community whose joint efforts revolved around a retreat center we all ran together as volunteers.  It was a beautiful life-changing experience - and after moving to Seattle for economic reasons, we still felt deeply connected to our ‘people’ in Tum Tum.  Any time we returned, we were right at home again - and even if we didn’t know all the new people who had come there, the fruit of what had previously been established still flourished.

To live ‘the community life’ is not always easy or idyllic.  Where there are humans, there are disagreements and misunderstandings.  We were fortunate to have guiding spiritual principles giving us strength and purpose deeper than what we could muster by our own will power.  Most communities with longevity - Findhorn, The Farm, Ananda Communities, the Dancing Rabbit, all have strong, connective underlying motivation for ‘hanging together’ for growth, for interpersonal development, and for doing more as a group than could be done alone. 

For me, the parable of the seed has always been a great allegory for the challenges we face in our growth.  In this story, a sower dropped seed on the path, on rocky ground, and among thorns, and the seed was lost.  On the path, the birds swooped down and ate it.  On rocky ground, the seed sprang up with joy, but soon withered for lack of depth of the roots.  On the thorns, the seed became choked out by the cares of the world.  When the seed fell on ‘good ground’ it took root, it flourished and bore fruit for everyone to enjoy!  

In our lives, we pass through all of these phases when wonderful new ideas come into our consciousness.  We connect with others who are at different stages of ‘soil refinement’ as well.     Every now and then, a little miracle occurs where we all connect at the ‘good soil stage’ - after we’ve individually removed the rocks and thorns from our hearts, and we are ready for ‘seeds of change’ to deeply take root and collectively flourish.  The refinement process really happens when we are working with others who open our eyes to our own issues.

I would dare to say, anyone who thinks they don’t need to be on ‘the path of shared growth’ is delusional.  If we imagine we are ‘an island’, we are in a fantasy of our own making.  We may have removed ourselves from the process because we felt hurt, rejected, under-appreciated and over-challenged.  I know, because there were many times I nearly did the same thing, allowing anger to nearly trump seeking love and understanding for my fellow travelers.  I am SO much wiser, stronger, and more compassionate for sticking with the process!

In a culture where most alliances - including marriage - have become so transient, is it possible for us to hunker down and work our issues out together?  I am penning this because I believe it is possible!   If we have common ground and common goals, we are much more empowered and effective as a community of people than as individuals.  Just like cultivating our gardens, cultivating our relationships is hard work.  Once we ‘get over that’, we can accomplish anything! 

Sustainability is often closely linked to self-sufficiency, but it never means isolation.  It means resiliency through a network of like-minded individuals.  It means moving away from the formal external social structures to find that WE form the structure that will carry us into the sustainable future.  Ready to grow?   Find your community!