Since moving to Seattle I have really been struggling with one/change. The ideas for posts don’t come as readily as they did before or with as much energy and excitement behind them. When I do have an idea that I like I constantly find myself stumbling over my words as I try to get my thoughts and information out. This is not something that I have only recently become aware of, but it is something that I haven’t felt was pertinent as a one/change post until recently.

As much as I felt like I didn’t belong in the west suburbs of Chicago, I had been there for long enough to find a few people and places that in various ways and levels I could be in community with. Those people and places fed me and I fed them. I tend to be friends with various types of people, each of whom bring out a different part of me. I would go places, do things, and talk to people and many times those interactions would support, encourage, and challenge who I am and the way I chose to live my life. Without that support and foundation I have experienced a lot of difficulty. Many times inspiration, ideas, passion, and ultimately posts are born out of sharing in community and turning ideas over with other people. Being able to cultivate those relationships and experiences fosters growth and progress in my worldview.

Right now I am in the process of carving out a life for myself in Seattle and I am already excited about the direction it is heading. One of the things this move has really made me aware of is the importance of being involved in communities and having those be places where I am part of something important. Places where I let myself be needed and need others. Places that bring awareness. Places where I share something that allows me to connect with other people, and some of the most beautiful times in my life have been where I have done this with people who are very different from myself. In the past I have found these things in the form of The Yoga Place, Erehwon Farm, and regular time together with close friends. I am not sure what it will look like, but I know that finding new places like this will help bring alive my connection to this community, to various parts of myself, and how interconnected we all really are in this life. Already I found a place to belong in our new church and am in the process of getting to know a wonderful group of people. Eventually I am sure I will find a yoga studio and an organic farm that good fits as well.

When you become a part of something; when you become part of a community and get to connected to the people within it, a natural desire arises to take care of it and to make changes to your lifestyle to make sure that is happening. Hopefully, there will be others within that community that you can learn from and that can learn from you.

For those of you who might of been worried that I have slacked in my passion for the environment and human rights issues, I want to put your minds and hearts at ease and let you know that I am as devoted as ever.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 17th, 2006 at 11:03 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.