Community Unplugged
Lately, I’ve been working my way through Parker J. Palmer’s, “A Hidden Wholeness.” Last night while reading, this quote sent me off in to a whirlwind of thoughts. This is how Parker describes community as being a circle of trust.
“A circle of trust is a group of people who know how to sit quietly “in the woods” with each other and wait for the soul to show up. The relationships in such a group are not pushy but patient; they are not confrontational but compassionate; they are not filled with expectations and demands but with abiding faith in the reality of the inner teacher and in each person’s capacity to learn from it.”
He concludes with a statement from the poet Rumi who captures the essence of this way of being together: “A circle of lovely, quiet people / become the ring on my finger.”
This circle of trust is based on our willingness to commit ( as Alan Creech posted recently about). Not with words or even actions, but sometimes by just being, waiting and watching the metamorphis of change and growth. Can you imagine the freedom that comes when all the pressure “to be” community isn’t there. Not that your not intentional, but it’s no longer academic or that your following someone else’s story. It’s like breathing in and out, it’s the rhythm of life.
In over seventeen plus years of marriage we have learned to “sit quietly together in the woods.” The days of being pushy are over, expectations have waned and in our stillness lessons are learned and trust is renewed.
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