Community, Community Building, Community Development, Family, Parenting

Bringing New Parents Up Rather Than Bringing Them Down: Achieving the “Unachievable”

We made it!  My husband, baby, and I have survived our little one’s first 24 months, “despite” being new parents! I say “survive” and “despite”, because according to most parents who gave us unsolicited advice when they found out we were pregnant, having a child marks the end of everything good in our lives. Seriously.… Read More Bringing New Parents Up Rather Than Bringing Them Down: Achieving the “Unachievable”

Community, Community Building, Community Development, Empowerement

It’s Not Just About School Shootings: The Broader Picture, and What We Can Do

This week’s posts were written with the victims of school shootings in mind—from those who died to their families, including those who survived and will carry the trauma with them for a long time. I started off the week with a list of immediately actionable things that each one of us can do.  I then… Read More It’s Not Just About School Shootings: The Broader Picture, and What We Can Do

Community, Community Building, Community Development

Barriers to Help The Weakest Links in our Communities

Yesterday’s post was all about personal action that can be taken to eradicate gun violence.  And while personal action is an essential part of the solution, so is engaging in the overall conversation about guns.  None of us, as individuals, has the solution to this problem; but each one of us holds an important insight… Read More Barriers to Help The Weakest Links in our Communities

Community, Community Building, Community Development

Little Things We Can All Do to Create a Safe World (aka No More School Shootings)

We all saw the news last week of yet another school shooting.  I have to say that I am fed up that so many children and teenagers in the United States could, one day, be faced with a shooter in their own school.  It shouldn’t happen, and yet it does. I remember going through safety… Read More Little Things We Can All Do to Create a Safe World (aka No More School Shootings)

Community, Community Building, Community Development

Don’t Blame Math; Blame the Mathematician

There is a lot of blame going around nowadays.  I’m not sure if this is something that has always been a part of our collective discourse—have humans always focused so much of their energy on finding someone to blame for anything they weren’t happy with? As someone who is very religious, I have found myself… Read More Don’t Blame Math; Blame the Mathematician

Community, Community Building, Community Development, Love, Virtues

What’s Love Got To Do With It? The Importance Of Love In Community-Building

Learning is essential for both personal development and the building of a community.  But it’s easier said than done.  When, for example, one has spent a lot of time and poured a lot of energy into one’s education, it can be quite a blow to hear that one might be wrong.  Similarly, when one identifies… Read More What’s Love Got To Do With It? The Importance Of Love In Community-Building

Community, Community Building, Community Development, Consumerism, Empowerement

More People, More Power: How Small Acts Can Contribute to a New World Order

The concept of progressive revelation (that God sends us Revelation in increasingly big doses through the different Manifestations of God) is based on the reality that humanity is maturing.  It is going through stages that are akin to one human’s development from infancy to childhood, onto adolescence and, finally, into adulthood. As a human being… Read More More People, More Power: How Small Acts Can Contribute to a New World Order

Community, Community Building, Community Development, Consumerism, Empowerement

Petitions and Boycotts: Why I Am Boycotting Nestlé Products

The transformation of the world from its current state to a place where every individual can participate actively in their personal material and spiritual development as well as contribute to the progress of humankind as a whole is going to need the upending of a lot of things—and I mean, a lot.  This means that… Read More Petitions and Boycotts: Why I Am Boycotting Nestlé Products

Community, Community Building, Community Development

What Vanuatu Structure I Wish My Neighborhood Would Build

I have been thinking a lot about the design of a neighborhood and how it could be adapted to better serve both the material and spiritual needs of its inhabitants. Now don’t get me wrong, I have no background in urban planning, urban design, or anything remotely close to the necessary fields to actually create… Read More What Vanuatu Structure I Wish My Neighborhood Would Build

Community, Community Building, Community Development

You Get A Cause, You Get A Cause, Everyone Gets A Cause!

It feels like, even more so than nine years ago, when I wrote about the difficulties in choosing a cause to support, that there are so many causes, organizations, groups, charities, etc. to support that one might find themselves wondering, Why even bother? Of course, I don’t ascribe to that line of thinking at all—there… Read More You Get A Cause, You Get A Cause, Everyone Gets A Cause!