Community Where You Are


Expressing Gratitude in Community

Posted on June 7, 2013 by

Communities and their members can change and drift apart, but the lessons and tools gained in community endure.


Seeking Community

Posted on June 7, 2013 by

The Tamarack Institute helps people talk and learn together about the possibilities of community.


Being Human

Posted on June 7, 2013 by

A veteran of Washington, DC’s Sojourners Community reflects on wisdom her group gleaned from Central Americans and from one another.


Wisdom from Within, Wisdom from Without

Posted on June 7, 2013 by
1 Comment

Life in and out of community offers valuable lessons about governance, membership, vision, struggles, and deepening connections.


Lessons from a Childhood in Maine

Posted on March 7, 2013 by

In rural Maine in the ’70s, community was everyday reality, and everyone needed help sometimes.


Cycling toward Sustainable Community

Posted on December 7, 2012 by
1 Comment

After 6,500 miles of pedaling and 100 community visits, a couple documents the promise of intentional community and cooperative living.


Greening Your ’Hood

Posted on December 7, 2012 by

Kibbutzes, ecovillages, cohousing communities, and pocket neighborhoods offer us opportunities to make a new start.


Community for a Minute

Posted on December 7, 2012 by
1 Comment

Children in outdoor programs face—and often overcome—three major obstacles to learning and growth.


The Sharing Gardens

Posted on December 7, 2011 by
2 Comments

An innovative approach to collective community gardens nurtures a culture of giving while allowing participants to feed both themselves and those in need.


The Lenox Place News

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

A fifth-grader takes initial steps toward right livelihood by creating a neighborhood newspaper that embodies and helps bring together her local community.


The Gift of Compost

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

To the Compostmeister at a collective house, the cycles of compost embody a new economics that focuses upon human needs and relationships.


Which Comes First, My Community or My Career?

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

Believing that the next phase in human evolution involves a return to the “local” and to community with neighbors, the author focuses his job search close to home, and includes any useful type of work.


Crowdfunding

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

A collective financial approach that allows individuals to pool their resources in support of favorite projects, crowdfunding both encourages and thrives upon community.


Remade in Edinburgh

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

In Brixton, South London, and Edinburgh, Scotland, right livelihood finds a home in innovative, resource-conserving, grassroots projects.


Right Lively ‘Hood

Posted on September 7, 2011 by
1 Comment

Finding meaningful, socially and ecologically responsible work cannot be done in a vacuum. Right livelihood depends on networks of relationship.


A Communitarian Conundrum

Posted on June 7, 2011 by
1 Comment

Despite widespread desire for community, structural and cultural obstacles to intentional community in the modern world loom large.


Honesty and Intimacy

Posted on June 7, 2011 by
3 Comments

In the author’s first, very intense intentional community immersion, revealing the truth led to love and intimacy. He left that group, but, in many spheres of life, emotional and intellectual honesty became his religion.


A Nomad Ponders Family and the Ecstasy of the Group

Posted on June 7, 2011 by

To a former communitarian and long-time student of community, utopian experiments—some sweet, some gone sour—offer valuable lessons about oneness, diversity, and intimacy.


Rx for “Mental Illness”

Posted on March 7, 2011 by
3 Comments

How can we best support mental health? Caring attention—even from amateurs—can promote healing unattainable through impersonal approaches or drugs.


Prescription Facebook

Posted on March 7, 2011 by
5 Comments

Ex-members of the Emissaries of Divine Light reflect on their shared past and discover more holistic approaches to inner wellness as they reunite online.


Tough Grace

Posted on March 7, 2011 by
4 Comments

For 12 years, a once-proud career woman struggled with manic depression, becoming a “bag lady” and experiencing more than a dozen hospitalizations, before entering recovery.


Remembering Jane Owen

Posted on December 7, 2010 by

In reviving and restoring the site of two historical intentional communities, a town’s benefactor revitalized its sense of present-day community as she continued to dream, create, grow, and give.


Elderhood, In and Out of Community

Posted on December 7, 2010 by
2 Comments

A disenchanted community founder leaves her group, and finds that her rural hometown farming community and international travel and service better match her vision of honorable elderhood.


Being “Overthrown”—A Celebration

Posted on September 7, 2010 by

The founder of Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage describes what it’s like to be criticized, marginalized, stripped of leadership responsibilities, and given the opportunity to explore a new role.


From Visions of Utopia to “The Many Faces of Community”

Posted on March 7, 2010 by

Geoph Kozeny’s community documentary brings forth reflections on Hearthaven, discussions among neighbors and friends, and ultimately a new intergenerational family community.


Garden as Therapist and Community Organizer

Posted on December 7, 2009 by

Neither the therapist diagnosing Major Depression nor the psychiatrist prescribing an antidepressant asked the fundamental question: Do you like to garden? When the author discovers this doorway into the natural world, he also finds community and inner and outer health.


Emergency Community

Posted on September 7, 2009 by
1 Comment

After serving thousands of meals, a community of post-Katrina relief kitchen volunteers moves to the West Coast and acquires a mortgage, a baby, full-time jobs, and the challenges of the mundane.


Lighten Up

Posted on June 7, 2009 by

Organized around common ecological values and a shared appreciation for the epic of evolution, a group of neighbors reduces its collective energy consumption by 25 percent.


Environmental Activism

Posted on June 7, 2009 by

With a long history of protecting the local watershed, Trillium Farm Community in southern Oregon grows not only organic food, but ecological activists.


Chicken à la West Birch Avenue

Posted on March 7, 2009 by

Author: Hilary Giovale Published in Communities Magazine Issue #142 We used to be a typical neighborhood. People were friendly enough and we waved to each other on our way into… Read More