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 Today's
topic is about how we choose the communities
that we will be a "soul" in. At one
level, every single movement of every day is
part of being a soul in community. Whenever
you are participating in anything, you are temporarily
part of that community. That is a useful image
in that you can feel yourself connected at any
moment. For example, if you are riding a bus
somewhere, for the time that you are on that
bus, you are part of the community of that bus.
You will behave differently if you consider
yourself a community member rather than simply
riding a bus with other people possibly interfering
with your bus ride to where you are going. If
it is a temporary community, you will look around,
be mindful of the other people on the bus, and
wish them well. You may or may not talk to other
people on the bus, but gentle awareness will
change the energy of the experience, certainly
for you, and, most likely, for them.
In that sense of community, it is a good idea
to pause several times throughout a day to ask,
what community am I a part of right now? You
will notice that you are always simultaneously
a part of several communities. In that pause,
you are part of the bus community, but also
part of the work community, that you may have
just left, and part of the community to which
you are going. In that pause, you will also
be reminded of how you are part of several other
larger communities up to and including the community
of living things on this earth. This sense of
belonging goes a long way toward eliminating
a sense of isolation from consciousness. It
goes a long way toward recognizing that you
are a point on a circle that corresponds to
that same point on several other circles.
Another aspect of belonging is how you decide
what communities to belong to. There are no
right answers on this one but it is important
that it be consciously examined by individuals
choosing to see themselves as souls in community.
Much of the decision making here will be based
on personality. It may seem at first that it
is based on life circumstances, but, really,
your personality is the determiner of many of
your life circumstances. For example, if you
are uncomfortable with a lot of groups on your
mind by personality style, you may choose to
live a single life without children and work
in a lab where you are the only technician.
In that lifestyle, you will still be part of
temporary communities (like the bus example)
and your small work force, but you will still
have every possibility of considering yourself
part of wider circles such as your town (with
your votes), your nation, and your world. You
may still live environmentally in a very conscious
way so that you are very much a conscious member
of the human race without actually being in
personal contact with very many humans.
On the other hand, your personality may direct
you toward being involved in several circles.
You may be one of those kinds of people who
very much like to be involved. Your challenges
will be to honor that as your style and to consciously
choose where you will put your energies. There
is a great difference between finding it impossible
to say "No" and being interested in
a lot of different things. Again, self-examination
is a wonderful thing. By continually being aware
of your own motivations, you can honestly ask
if it seems to you that you are saying "yes"
because you don't know how to say "no."
If that is the case, the next step is to acknowledge
that you can't possibly be honoring your commitments
if your attachment to them is so minimal. The
appropriate and most helpful response is a "no"
in the first place. Then the community can move
on to get commitment from someone who really
means it. This is not a place to feel bad. The
community will find someone who can be wholeheartedly
committed.
If you have the personality style to feel enthusiastic
about many possible activities, it is important
to be mindful of what energy would be required
for the activities. It is important to be mindful
that, of course, activities will tend to happen
at the same time if you belong to several different
communities. That simply goes with the territory.
If you focus on the positive aspects, you will
feel much better about this personality style
that you have. By belonging to many communities,
you can help them to overlap and draw from each
other. You know the communities in ways that
other people don't. Hence, you can see how they
overlap.
When people begin to honor their own soul-in-community
style, they can also begin to honor the style
of every other soul in community. We each have
our own styles and contributions to make. There
is no right and wrong on this.
We will get on with becoming all that we are
capable of when we understand our own styles,
honor the styles of others, and don't try to
make each other be something that we aren't
as souls in community. There is room for all
styles and, in fact, that is why there are all
styles. There are no mistakes here. Each style
is absolutely important. The richness of the
world that we are creating depends on it.
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