Every time that I leave my mountainside home and head down into Sutton Village to take part in some community activity, I enjoy myself tremendously, and feel well-met and well-served. I hope that in turn I serve well those whom I encounter. Returning to my home, I feel happy, calm and joyous, connected and supported, challenged and stretched - invited to become even more the person I choose to be.
This, for me, is true community. The people whom I spend time with do not necessarily share my beliefs about being in the world, about being in the Now. Some of them challenge me to embody compassion and I love very much that they challenge me in this way. Some expect integrity and abolute honesty from me and I love and honour them for this. Some are very young, compared to me. Some are older than I am and model for me what I might some day become. Yet I see, in every person I have encountered in this blessed part of the world, an open countenance, a loving heart, an acceptance of others, a trust in life. I am so appreciative of the people around me!
I walked, one day, a long time ago, on an ice-coated crust of snow over deep winter drifts. I walked very slowly and carefully through the deep snow, tredding gingerly on the top crust, willing my body to weigh less in those moments, so that I wouldn't break through and become mired in the drifts. I walked through a woodland and composed, as I walked, a song, in French.... the only song or poem that I have ever written in French. It was about all of us, together, and how we were, perhaps, once upon a time and how we can be again, if we but choose it for ourselves. I translated the song into English. Here it is, for you. I give it to you now because it occurs to me that the community I have delightedly found in Sutton Village and its environs is not so very far from the blessed existence described within my little song.
Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time
All men and women equally
Together or brave singly
We walked the world the world to see
Once upon a time
Once upon a time
Love came from eyes that shone like stars
All brothers, sisters, near or far
And fear did not one moment mar
Once upon a time
Once upon a time
This Earth was one great garden fair
And humans talked to the animals there
In our words, wisdom and care
Once upon a time
Once upon a time
Each person knew his own good grace
And trust in life showed in each face
So miracles they came to every place
Once upon a time......
Once upon a time
Community, like so much else that is our world, is created by our choosing, by our will, by our intention. I've written here of listening, really listening to each other, of non-violent communication, of honouring the Other and the free will of the Other, of acceptance and of unconditional love. What kind of a community can we create with these as our key ingredients? And having done so, do we not change the world-whole-becoming?
You see, in my world, people honour each other, for who they are, for who they have been and for all of their potentials, as yet unformed, unrealized. In my world, communities thrive and grow, support their members and yet offer them the freedom to be who they truly are. In my world, humans live without fear. They listen to the non-human life forms that surround them. They act in accordance with and in balance with these other life forms. They trust in their own divine wisdom. They expect miracles. They love unconditionally. They treat each other as honoured equals in this great adventure called being in the world. My "Once Upon a Time" is not so very far from us. Not in my world. Not in my community.
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