Category: Community Building

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Friendship, Personal Development —

How to Make the Time to Nurture Deep Friendships while Having the Time to get to Know All Community Members: Some Thoughts

July 12, 2016
Sahar's Blog 2016 05 10 How to Make the Time to Nurture Deep Friendships while Having the Time to get to Know All Community Members

Just a couple of weeks ago, Bahá’í communities around the world elected their national administrative bodies in a unique electoral process.  One of its aspects is, as I personally understand it, that each elector has to make the effort to get to know all the members of one’s community. I also understand that to build… Read More How to Make the Time to Nurture Deep Friendships while Having the Time to get to Know All Community Members: Some Thoughts

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Personal Development —

The Insistent Self: Dealing with Desire For Success

July 5, 2016
Sahar's Blog 2016 05 17 The Insistent Self Dealing with Desire to Be Asked to do More

The way the conversation around success seems to be going, it remains a broad, complex, and subjective concept.  For example, I can define success as something you will consider completely unimportant. But even if we don’t agree with a certain definition of success, some of them still generate in us behaviours indicating that we just… Read More The Insistent Self: Dealing with Desire For Success

— Community, Community Building, Family, Labor and Delivery, Pregnancy —

Live From the Delivery Room! Community-Building and the Birth of a New Member

June 3, 2016
Sahar's Blog 2016 06 03 Live From the Delivery Room! Community-Building and the Birth of a New Member

One of the things about having so many friends who have been pregnant before me is that I have had the pleasure of hearing about their pregnancy, labor, and delivery experiences and what they have learned from it.  If there is one important, vital, underlying lesson I got from all of these experiences, it’s that… Read More Live From the Delivery Room! Community-Building and the Birth of a New Member

— Community, Community Building, Community Development —

The Real Meaning of Unity: Removing Obstacles to Fulfilling our True Purpose in Life

May 24, 2016

Quite unfortunately, community-building doesn’t just happen when a group of good-willed individuals come together. Not that good-will doesn’t help! But it’s not enough. All the good-will in the world cannot be properly channeled unless there is unity. If we think of the community-building process as rowing, it becomes clear that we can have a lot… Read More The Real Meaning of Unity: Removing Obstacles to Fulfilling our True Purpose in Life

— Community, Community Building, Community Development —

Unity Amidst Increasing Diversity in Smaller and Smaller Spaces: The Vital Importance of Respect

May 24, 2016

I recently posted reflections about the importance of learning the skills related to consultation in the context of a family, so that we can apply said skills in the context of society. The world is becoming smaller and smaller through increasingly efficient travel and exchange of information. This means two things: different people end up… Read More Unity Amidst Increasing Diversity in Smaller and Smaller Spaces: The Vital Importance of Respect

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Friendship —

Pleasantries: the Hydrogen Bond of Community Building?

May 10, 2016

Do you remember your organic chemistry? Do you remember those little H-bonds, who were not in themselves strong enough to hold a molecular structure together, but were strong enough to change properties of, say, water? The ones that make a molecule wrap itself differently, and/or make it a little stronger? I have always had an… Read More Pleasantries: the Hydrogen Bond of Community Building?

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Family, Parenting —

Three Things I Wish People Would Stop Doing and Saying to Pregnant Parents {and what they could do instead}

May 6, 2016
Sahar's Blog 2016 05 06 Four Things I Wish People Would Stop Doing and Saying to Expecting Parents

As discussed last week, a pregnancy is a very intimate affair and yet has a certain community-oriented side which I have been very lucky to experience both as a non-pregnant and pregnant community member. There are still, however, many boundaries that need to be respected.  Learning how to identify and respect these boundaries is further… Read More Three Things I Wish People Would Stop Doing and Saying to Pregnant Parents {and what they could do instead}

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Governance —

Eeny-meeny-mino-mo, catch a leader by the toe…

May 3, 2016

It’s election season in North America! Just like Thanksgiving, Canada went first, and soon the US will follow. These elections are being touted as being of particular importance; after watching the markets go up and down in the last couple of weeks, I have come to the brilliantly original conclusion that it’s because things aren’t… Read More Eeny-meeny-mino-mo, catch a leader by the toe…

— Community, Community Building, Governance, Personal Development —

Coherence: Asking of our Leaders only What We Work For Ourselves

May 3, 2016
Sahar's Blog Coherence Asking of our Leaders only What We Work For Ourselves

I have been keeping abreast (as much as my poor heart can take it) of the horrific events in and around Syria. The photograph of the drowned little boy shocked me just like it did many others; the outcry following it made me initially quite happy; perhaps his sacrifice would mean that others wouldn’t have… Read More Coherence: Asking of our Leaders only What We Work For Ourselves

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Governance —

A New Kind of Leader: Stepping Away From Old Conceptions of Leadership

May 3, 2016
Sahar's Blog 2016 05 03 A New Kind of Leader Stepping Away From Old Conceptions of Leadership

My concern about the advancement of humanity through the development of each community makes me naturally think a lot about the question of what makes a good leader.  I find myself often wondering how the conceptions about leadership that I encounter in my reading and in my conversations with other can ever pave the way… Read More A New Kind of Leader: Stepping Away From Old Conceptions of Leadership