Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
A community is so much more than people sharing a space. It's a living, breathing network of connections and shared experiences. While it's usually defined as “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common,” true community runs much deeper than that.
Diversity
It doesn’t matter how different we are. What matters in building a community is the desire to live in a peaceful and caring environment, despite all our differences.Good Neighbors
Good Neighbors
When searching for a new place to call home, we hope to stumble upon neighbors who can transform a neighborhood into something meaningful. We all need to be surrounded by people who genuinely care for the well-being of others. Only this type of people can create a community that is more than just a bunch of individuals living next to each other.
It Starts with One
Building a strong community starts with individual contributions, no matter how small. As long as you are kind and willing to help others in need, you’ll be a great community member. In exchange, your community will give you a sense of belonging and the feeling that you are never alone.
Here are 35 quotes on what makes communities special — community service, coming together, engagement, involvement, and support
Quotes about community coming together
One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals.
JEAN VANIER
There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
MARGARET J. WHEATLEY
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
HERMAN MELVILLE
There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.
IDOWU KOYENIKAN
Our generation has the ability and the responsibility to make our ever-more connected world a more hopeful, stable and peaceful place.
NATALIE PORTMAN
Quotes about building community
We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.
CICERO
Some people think they are in community, but they are only in proximity. True community requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other.
DAVID SPANGLER
What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.
KURT VONNEGUT
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
DOROTHY DAY
The minute we become an integrated whole, we look through the same eyes and we see a whole different world together.
AZIZAH AL-HIBRI
This world of ours… must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to.
ORSON SCOTT CARD
Quotes about community service, engagement, and involvement
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.
MUHAMMAD ALI
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Teaching kids how to feed themselves and how to live in a community responsibly is the center of an education.
ALICE WATERS
Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.
SHERRY ANDERSON
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
LEO BUSCAGLIA
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
ANNE FRANK
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
DR. SEUSS
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
OSCAR WILDE
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
MAYA ANGELOU
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Quotes about community support
In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.
CORETTA SCOTT KING
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.
JACQUELINE WOODSON
One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.
SHANNON L. ALDER
No man can become rich without himself enriching others.
ANDREW CARNEGIE
Quotes about community health
The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital.
MARK HYMAN
For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other.
MILLARD FULLER
Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women.
MICHELLE OBAMA
When elected officials abandon our environment and ruin our natural resources, public health is endangered. I know the importance of providing a clean environment for our children.
GWEN MOORE
And I believe that the best buy in public health today must be a combination of regular physical exercise and a healthy diet.
JULIE BISHOP
These quotes remind us of the joy of being part of something bigger than ourselves.
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Should I Be Of Service to Myself Or Others?
Which path - Service to self or others?
Most of us chose our professions by responding to an instinctual angst to fix a problem. Our childhood experiences showed us a need we tried to fill by righting wrongs or injustice. Often becoming our raison d'être for this life. It directs us to a life of service to self or service to others. You could call it nonprofit vs. for-profit, but it’s not that simple.
Working for someone else’s dream is a service to others and not necessarily the selfless concepts we associate with that term. Service to self at it’s best is the call of the artist within us all to create and be. Please don’t limit the concept of an artist to paintings, sculpture, etc. Art is our calling for the lessons we want to learn in this life. The Mayans left us the formula for mankind: Time(Energy)=Art.
We live in a time of big questions and choices on a personal and planetary level. The world is getting united as we become more connected. We see the pains and joys from around the world and the cybersphere have emotionally fused the two.
The question next is how to exit the matrix. Or switch the priority from service to others then self, to service to self then others. These polarities are best served by equal service to both. Neither are bad or good because each needs the other to succeed.
Isn’t that narcissistic? No, two Burning Mans and an Afrikaburn taught me that. Try it, spend a week receiving from others. You’ll feel the desire to do give as well. Radical receiving begets radical giving. Our species at it’s finest.
Think of the prep you do when you have a cold. You get the medicine, tissues, cream for your skin, liquids and hunker down to rest. Give yourself that radical self-care on everything as the patient. Be the best friend who you would do anything for your wellbeing. Don’t forget to apply tough love as needed.
Ask yourself this: “What would someone who loves me say?” Tell your ego to answer that question and you will put it in the place it’s supposed to be: guiding not driving. You are in the best position to give advice because you know you. The lazy you, the parts of you that need a kick in the pants, the insecure child, and what brings you joy and tears. Treat yourself like a lover, best friend, parent or whomever you love the most. And then take the advice.
Take heed that negative thoughts or fear will be like self-abuse. While at Afrikaburn, an alchemist and I measured the Schumann Resonance at 27 SR. That’s one of the highest readings on the planet according to those who pay attention. And expected at high vibration events. At 21 SR it's said that we will see instant manifestations. During the burn, I saw fear manifest on two different occasions. Camp members mentioned their fears of safety, and both were victims of theft.
Negative emotions coupled with thoughts are just as powerful as your positive ones. But there is no need to hide from fears or ignore them. Just acknowledge and release them with self-acceptance. Or as we say back home ‘check yourself before you wreck yourself.’
Radical self-care is the polarity (and partner) to radical world service. Acknowledge and accept that both need to exist. I like what a friend said ‘life is the dance between the two polarities. When we accept either service option for our lives, we automatically need the other.
My service to others involves teaching in foreign lands, writing stories fresh from the muses and trusting the flow of it all with one-way tickets. The radical service to self requires a diet of no sugars, gluten or meat. Spiritual nurturance starts with solar gazing and wearing a uniform.
Synchronicity flows best when I have no plans for the day and options are laid out for me to choose instead of guessing the right choice. A lesson I wish I knew at 35 instead of 55, but I’m better understanding today.
When you need advice ask yourself 'What would someone who loves me say?' And then listen to the loving response.
About The Author
Phyllis Serene (https://www.phyllisrawley.com) is the founder of God/Dess University (GU) (https://www.goddessuniversity.org). GU offers courses in earth sciences, energy medicine, life cycle support and sexual wellness. Her career includes Christian missionary, executive recruiter, non-profit director and Dominatrix. She is Southern California Leather Woman 2010-2011 an international sexual wellness educator and author. Her latest book is "All My Heroes Were Ho's, Life Lessons From The Dungeon". She is an advocate for sexual wellness and creator of the Five Alignments course. Teaching the five intelligent systems: spiritual, intellectual, emotional, instinctual and sexual. Interviewed by Essence.com the largest African-American women's magazine. And seen on E Networks "The Real 50 Shades of Grey".