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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The 6 Signs You Have Found Your Soulmate--And How To Prepare For It
With additions by Ricky Derisz
When you hear the word soulmate, you probably think of some unexpected, perfect, just-like-you match that comes into your life one day and takes your breath away. We love to believe this myth. One reason we love it is because it requires little to no effort on our part, as the outcome is written in the stars, and guided by fate.
Sure, it’s frustrating to wait for Mr or Ms. Right, but believing in this myth is the easy path. If destiny is in control, finding love is a passive process. Not only that, but this parable justifies wandering wishes – of discovering someone who causes us little to no friction.
Life is already tough. Wouldn’t it be great to find someone who can finally accept ‘you’ as-is? The irony is, believing in this myth could be the one thing preventing you from finding and developing a relationship with your true soulmate.
Definition
A soulmate, meaning someone with which you have the closest possible human bond. Although this can be platonic, such as a best friend, most people link the idea of a soulmate with romance. As the term implies, the relationship has spiritual connotations — including a shared connection that transcends time and space, or multiple lifetimes.
A soulmate is usually far more disruptive than the false ideal of a missing puzzle piece that will complete your life and make everything okay. At its most intense, this person sees directly into your soul, destroying the inauthentic, false ‘you’ in the process. From this, something beautiful happens, as the real You is acknowledged, celebrated, and revealed. That includes your dreams, your beauty, and the immense strength you carry within.
Consequently, a soulmate is in your life for a distinct purpose or mission. This is an important aspect of this relationship, as a soulmate isn’t here to make you feel comfortable, or make things easy. They know who you really are; they will help you break through the limitations you see in yourself, and if necessary they will upset the very foundation of your ego.
Their greatest gift and most important role is that they don’t fit the myth of perfection. Instead, a soulmate is a loving and revealing transformer.A person who isn’t afraid to challenge the ideas you have of yourself. They will expose you to flaws that keep you from achieving your true potential – in mind, body, and in spirit.
To quote Elizabeth Gilbert, “a soulmate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.”
At times, the process hurts. Not because they are here to hurt us, but because if we protect the ideas we have of ourselves with a proverbial death grip, letting go of an ego-identity, to grow into something greater, feels like a risk. But the risk is always worth taking, especially in the company of a true spiritual companion.
Relationships and spiritual growth
When someone comes along who has gotten so close as to see into our truest, deepest nature, we become exposed. We become confused. We become vulnerable. And like any other muscle in our body, the heart and mind must be vulnerable to experience growth; only then can we develop true strength.
As humans, we fear change and love comfort, but it is change that gives us the ability to stand in our own courage and proclaim victory over the challenges we never thought we could overcome, let alone those we never even knew existed.
Fear hides behind ego, behind the illusion of strength… and so, there is a special love reserved for those whose grand, yet humble presence causes us to be so exposed that we actually become better people in our own eyes. We form a new kind of power that is rooted in what most people consider weakness. We find strength in vulnerability.
The world has plenty of powerful people with seemingly indestructible egos, and even more naysayers and yes-men. What we really need are vulnerable people, those who live from the heart. Less fear, and more courage. Less smoke, and more mirrors. What we need are soulmates.
The 6 signs you have found your soulmate
There’s no definitive checklist to confirm you’ve found your soulmate. Meaning and purpose with a partner is something felt on a heart level. Even if there are ups and downs, the connection feels resolute, strong, and nourishing. But if you have thought “who is my soulmate?,” these signs indicate you’ve found a potential contender:
When will you meet your soulmate?
There is a note of caution with entering such a dynamic. It takes a willingness, independence, and spiritual insight to ensure the process of “destruction” is autonomous. Sure, it will hurt at times, but the ability to discern when someone is reflecting blind spots in a way that catalyzes growth, or when someone is being disruptive in an unhealthy way, is crucial.
As a result, most people will meet their soulmate when they are spiritually and emotionally developed enough to enter such a relationship. For others, a soulmate relationship is nourishing and supportive, if that is what is most needed. Someone who lacks trust or had a difficult upbringing may attract a soulmate who provides a feeling of security and belonging.
So the word of warning is to be aware of the line between supportive and at times difficult reflection, and traits that point more towards an unhealthy dynamic. How can you prepare to meet your soulmate? It begins with inner work. And inner work begins by asking yourself some tough questions:
Trust that these relationships contain a seed of mystery, and you’re not in full control of when you will meet your soulmate. The best action step is to be receptive, open, and focus on developing self-worth and spiritual growth, independent of any single relationship.
It’s also worth noting that there is a distinction between a soulmate and a twin flame. Throughout life, you might have numerous soulmate relationships — or even a “soul tribe” of like-minded, like-hearted people. Any of these, at different times, can reflect what needs to be reflected. A twin flame, however, has a different quality, with even more mirroring.
Regardless, no single person is to be pedestalled or to have the final say over your life. A soul mate knows this, and will guide gently, with love and respect.
In conclusion
Today, you may be completely oblivious to people who will mean so much to you in the future—ordinary people who will help you change your perspectives, and in doing so, will change the very quality of your life experience.
We have zero insight into how or when such connections form, and yet, in that serendipity—in our collective blindness—lies the beauty of life. So, next time you feel like you don’t make a difference, think of the power one handshake or one “hello” has to transform an entire human being. Never forget this power.
You can be the soulmate someone never knew they needed. And if you’re wondering when the time is right, just remember: it’s better to live a life of a few “oh wells” than to live a life full of “what ifs.”