Finding Your Ideal Community

A thought for those of you who are aspiring to find a community somewhere other than where you’re living — maybe some of your neighbors are thinking the same thing! Maybe your community is closer than you think, and just needs someone to get the conversation started. I’ve been surprised at what I’ve found out about my neighbors who I assumed had no interest in making our place a collapse-aware community.

BTW for those of you aspiring to live “off-grid”: Try it today! At my house I can experience off-grid life by camping out in my garage. No need to move out to the country or “somewhere else” other than RHRN (Right Here Right Now).

Not to be glib. People have valid reasons for wanting to move too. But on the whole, we in the USA are too quick to move. We’re also prone to harbor longtime aspirations of finding some mythical ideal “elsewhere.” This is not healthy for individuals, and also not conducive to building a healthy community.

What’s helped me most is to do errands on foot, and talk to my neighbors along the way. I really have been surprised to find out how many people are on the same page. And you really can’t tell by surface appearances or casual passing greetings. It’s the beyond-just-greeting conversations (5 minutes or more) where things start to come out.

I do understand the desire to live in a village consisting entirely of fellow members of one’s chosen “tribe” (be it permaculturists, preppers, adherents of a certain meditation practice or spiritual sect, or what have you). But peace, security, and peace of mind aren’t necessarily as easy to attain (and sustain) within such a village as one might think. Some people might find more of what they’re looking for by deciding to stay “out there in the world” and serve their “civilian” neighborhood or city. That has turned out to be the case for me.