Integral Community, a four quadrant approach to this week's Bliss Initiatives

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COMMUNITY - Sharing, participation, and fellowship.

So when I hit upon my idea to use the four quadrant approach to community I figured that someone out there must have already done the same thing and I would use that information as a type of template as I go forward. Unfortunately this just doesn't seem to be the case or the examples I have found seem to be called four quadrants but really have nothing to do with Ken Wilber's Integral approach. So I guess it is up to me to do some actual thinking!

Click on Graph to find out more about what looking at the world through a 4-quadrant lens provides.

• Upper Left Quadrant (I) Bliss Initiative: Identify what is important to me when considering my participation in a given community. What am I interested in getting, giving, creating, sharing etc. I realize I have generally been pretty random about community and am interested what some intention can provide. I've noticed that since moving to my new neighborhood I haven't felt like jumping in with my usual vigor. I want to be selective about how I spend my time so considering what I want out of my community participation will be vital before I start forming new attachments!
  

• Upper Right Quadrant (IT) Bliss Initiative: Identify all of my physical communities. In this exercise I will identify all the communities where I currently participate and determine in what new communities I want to participate. This should be a very fun exercise. Some communities are obvious like families, neighborhoods but others like park users, performing art center patrons aren't always at the forefront of our minds but are still part of the world we operate in.
  

• Lower Left Quadrant (WE) Bliss Initiative: Enjoy some community. This is a simple one for me since I will be attending the monthly potluck dinner with my play date mommy group and their families. If you don't already have an event planned consider hosting a little gathering with/for one of your communities.
  

• Lower Right Quadrant (ITS) Bliss Initiative: I'm going to find a global community initiative that I want to see realized and see what I can do to forward the action. I'm specifically thinking of some environmental project... more to come later in the week!

Next Post: Bliss Initiatives update

My 13 bliss virtues: joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, surprise 

Community week begins!

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COMMUNITY - Sharing, participation, and fellowship.

I spent this morning and early afternoon hanging with one of my favorite communities, the mommies of all of Jessie's friends. We have all known each other and have been meeting at the park for almost two years. I had a Meetup group for Mountain View Parents that had 400+ people in it by the time I gave the group up (because I was moving out of Mountain View) in October but I never felt all those people were my community. My smaller group of 7-10 mommies (depending on the outing) are my core group and even now that I no longer live in Mountain View they remain my community. Six of us see each other for rotating Friday play date lunches and this group plus a few more meet each week at the park. Our kids love each other and we take turns keeping each other sane as we navigate through toddlerhood. I really can't imagine what life would be without them and thankfully that is not a concern!

You will notice that I chose a pretty simple description of community.  Wikipedia has all this to offer:
In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. In sociology, the concept of community has caused infinite debate, and sociologists are yet to reach agreement on a definition of the term. There were ninety-four discrete definitions of the term by the mid-1950s. Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national community or global community.
Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location. 


Whew! There are so many nuances yet at the heart it seems pretty uncomplicated. Some type of common interest and in this day a computer are all that is needed for kindred spirits to find each other... spend a little time and voila you are a community!  During my Integral Inquiry I found this integral map of a community on the BC Healthy Communities website.

Having just immersed myself in integral thought I've decided it is the perfect approach for my study of community. I am going to formulate one bliss initiative in each of the four quadrants!

Next Post: Community Bliss Initiatives!

My 13 bliss virtues: joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, surprise