All Blog Posts
The Relationship of Relationships to the Group
Posted on June 7, 2011 by2 Comments
Relationships don’t exist in a vacuum. Through a culture of communication and support, communities can create the healthy container which relationships need in order to flourish.
Honesty and Intimacy
Posted on June 7, 2011 by3 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 byTo a former communitarian and long-time student of community, utopian experiments—some sweet, some gone sour—offer valuable lessons about oneness, diversity, and intimacy.
Piece in Atlantic about Transition Towns
Posted on April 4, 2011 byAn article in the Atlantic by Kentaro Toyama describes Transition Towns as “the latest in a history of intentional communities that have experimented to find more enlightened alternatives to modern… Read More
Hopeful New Stories from the Old World
Posted on March 7, 2011 by1 Comment
Ten European ecovillages show the way to a brighter future.
Nurturing Healthy Minds
Posted on March 7, 2011 byLiving in community can provide all the elements necessary for promoting mental well-being, from kinship and useful work to recreation and beauty.
Rx for “Mental Illness”
Posted on March 7, 2011 by3 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 by5 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.
Shadow Sides of NVC and Co-Counseling
Posted on March 7, 2011 by1 Comment
To make best use of nonviolent communication and co-counseling, avoid these traps.
Hand in Hand, Heart to Heart
Posted on March 7, 2011 byWith loving help from others, the old emotional distresses that can sabotage both our mental health and our relationships in community can be cleared and permanently resolved.
Tough Grace
Posted on March 7, 2011 by4 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.
Communicable Gifts
Posted on March 7, 2011 byBoth healthy ideas and unhealthy ideas can take hold and spread like viruses. Suicidal tendencies and eating disorders provide invaluable lessons to one communitarian.
Gifted, Mad, and Out of Control
Posted on March 7, 2011 by4 Comments
The author recounts his personal history with the “mentally ill”—social misfits who can show us the way to a better world, if they are allowed to make the journey.
Further Thoughts on a Community’s Changes
Posted on December 7, 2010 byThis companion piece to Elderhood, In and Out of Community gives further reflections from community members.
Getting Elder All the Time
Posted on December 7, 2010 byCommunity can be balm for the discomforts of aging, just as elders’ wisdom and caring can soothe the growing pains of youth.
Poor Minutes Lead to Wasted Hours
Posted on December 7, 2010 byAuthor: Laird Schaub Published in Communities Magazine Issue #149 Good records of what happened at meetings are important for a variety of reasons: ● Informing members who missed the meeting… Read More
Remembering Jane Owen
Posted on December 7, 2010 byIn 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.
And I Listen
Posted on December 7, 2010 by2 Comments
Howling, shouting, cries of despair, and The Pierced One greet a parent on her first visit to her daughter’s adopted community. Luckily, through lots of talking and listening, things improve.
On Becoming Elders
Posted on December 7, 2010 byFor many baby boomers, taking on the mantle of eldership means transforming the sometimes rambunctious, in-your-face, empowerment-obsessed energy they worked so hard to sustain.
Elderhood, In and Out of Community
Posted on December 7, 2010 by2 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.
It Takes a Community to Grow an Elder
Posted on December 7, 2010 by5 Comments
After confronting an identity crisis worthy of adolescence, a 65-year-old finds a new home in community and discovers that elderhood is a blessing, not a curse.
Eco-commune movement in Russia
Posted on November 17, 2010 byRussia: Beyond the Headlines, an international newspaper focused on Russian news, politics and culture, recently posted an article on the growth of homesteading communities, referred to as “eco-communes” in rural… Read More
Huffington Post profiles a Christian community with a social agenda
Posted on September 26, 2010 byThis article discusses the impact that a group of young Christians are hoping to produce by building community in a violent neighborhood in Gresham, Oregon. This work is tied to… Read More
New York Times showcases emerging collectives in Brooklyn
Posted on September 21, 2010 byAn article in the Fashion & Style section of the Times this week credits urban agriculture, social media and a flourishing arts community as bolstering the trend toward sharing, bartering… Read More
Call in the Experts?
Posted on September 7, 2010 byAuthor: Beatrice Briggs Published in Communities Magazine Issue #148 Q. Our group is very divided. We need to make major decisions regarding finances, organizational structures, and policies, at a time… Read More
The Community that Dines Together, Aligns Together
Posted on September 7, 2010 byAuthor: Valerie Renwick-Porter Published in Communities Magazine Issue #148 Ah yes, the community meal table. Communal dining can be a glorious bonding experience, as members recreate the feeling of an… Read More
Power and Powerlessness in Community
Posted on September 7, 2010 byA community member transcends a feeling of powerlessness when he inadvertently comes up with a brilliant idea about how to organize cooking groups, and others join him in implementing it.
Balancing Powers
Posted on September 7, 2010 by1 Comment
In a healthy community, leadership and followship are equally important roles, each with vital skill sets that can assure effective teamwork.
Power and Disempowerment on the Ecobus
Posted on September 7, 2010 by7 Comments
Some saw this radical environmental education program as a “cult,” others as an intensely focused experience of challenge and growth. Had participants lost their individuality, or gained a new sense of self?
More Perspectives on Leadership and Followship
Posted on September 7, 2010 by1 Comment
The author identifies additional leadership skills, cautions against blind followship, and reflects on the many types of power in cooperative groups.
