Category: Essays

The many philosophies of minimalism.

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Community

communityI have said time and time again how the real value in life lies in the experiences we have and the positive relationships we build. But which relationships am I talking about? All of them. Some of the relationships we may not even realize we have, also have a tremendous impact on our lives. These relationships likely include:

  1. neighbors
  2. acquaintances
  3. community
  4. strangers
  5. humanity

Of all five of these relationships, community is the most important. Why? Because Community encompasses all the other four.

I can’t stress enough the personal rewards that come with being active in our community; being community “oriented.” Whether its charitable events, fun events, or celebratory events, when we are participating in community events, we are cleansing our soul, and establishing/improving our relationships within our community. This means all the people in our community: friends, acquaintances, and even strangers alike.  And in the end, this rolls up to a good relationship with humanity as a whole.

When we participate in making the community a better place, others in the community notice and remember. The more we make our faces seen by those with influence in our community, the more we ourselves have influence too. These are subtleties that are the basis for our relationship with our community.

Being active in the community gives one a sense of belonging, a sense of pride in ones home town. And that feeling is supported by the people we live with within the community. It is truly a wonderful feeling.

With that being said, I urge everyone to get involved in their community in some way, shape, or form. Unsure how to start? Look for local events in the paper. Events such as fares, walks, fundraisers, and festivals. Most communities have a United Way chapter to reach out to. United Way literally has dozens of community events per year. They also have the names and connections of many other charitable and “community enrichment” groups locally one may be interested in.

Reach out, and be part of the community, don’t just live in it.

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Traditions

pumpkin_traditionI have said time and again that that life is all about relationships and experiences. With that in mind, there is no better way to foster both of these things than to have healthy and celebratory traditions. Yearly, monthly, weekly, or even daily habits we have within our groups (families most likely) that everyone takes part in and shares their ideas, experiences, and/or joy.

 

I believe we all have some type of yearly traditions. For most of us, we have the Holidays. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Cuanza, Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, Valentines Day, and of course my favorite, Halloween, we all find a reason to eat, drink, and be merry, or just have fun activities with our loved ones. But our yearly traditions don’t have to end there, we could have our yearly family vacation in the summer, family ski trip in the winter, hiking in the gunks in the autumn, whatever.

Many people even have monthly family traditions as well. I have heard of families that on the 2nd Sunday of every month go roller skating, to a drive in movie, or even just a family dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Weekly traditions are wonderful too. How many of us have ever heard of Friday family game night? Church on Sunday is a tradition too.

Daily, families gather around the dinner table to have dinner together ……. this is a tradition too.

 

I encourage ALL of these traditions. These traditions create the setting in which relationships are built, and some of our most joyous life experiences are had. These are the things we should be spending our time and money on. Not presents, toys, flashy clothes, elaborate appliances, or empty real estate.

 

Even personal traditions are healthy, as they still foster wonderful life experiences, and potentially start new relationships. They also to a great deal toward growing a persons relationship with themselves, and with humanity.

 

Personal Testimonial:

In my family we take the entire month of October to celebrate Halloween. We are absolutely crazy over it. My wife and I have a fascination for all things horror, gore, supernatural, and just plain scary. We are slowly but surely getting our little girl on board with this (horror is a tough sell to a child).  All October long, it’s all about Horror flix, costume design, pumpkin picking and decorating, and haunted events. We just can’t get enough of it.

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Be kind

kindnessLife has only three very basic values and one of them is to create and maintain positive relationships (get my book to learn about the other two values). I can go into great detail about the importance of cultivating strong family relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships (lovers). But I wouldn’t be telling anyone anything we don’t already know.

But what about our relationships with neighbors, acquaintances, and even strangers?  “Huh. Uhhhh we don’t have relationships with neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers. That’s kinda what makes them neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers. Duh.” I’m afraid that I strenuously disagree.

We do in fact have a relationship with every single person we pass by in a hallway. It’s small, subtle, too small to even be noticed, but it’s  there nonetheless. In fact, these tiny relationships are the pieces of the relationship we have with all of humanity as a whole. Our relationship with humanity is reflected in how we treat strangers; this is obvious. But what might not be so obvious is that how we treat strangers will determine our relationship with humanity; our feelings toward people in general.

With that being said, BE NICE TO PEOPLE. To everybody. If there are some neighbors/acquaintances/strangers that we don’t particularly care for, or make questionable decisions, just remember that since they’re neighbors/acquaintances/strangers in the first place we don’t know enough about their situation. So we are in no position to judge. So be kind.

Cultivating a positive relationship with humanity is simple. Here are some tips/examples:

  • If we see an elderly woman having trouble lifting her groceries into her car in the parking lot, help her out.
  • Smile at people.
  • A simple “Good morning” goes a long way.
  • Courtesies:
    • Let someone ahead of us in line or in traffic.
    • Give up our seat to a person in need (particularly the pregnant or elderly).
  • Idle chit chat while waiting on line.
  • If you see something, say/do something:
    • A small child left alone.
    • A bag left alone.
    • An abusive relationship in progress.

These are just some examples off the top of my head. But by now my point is clear.

In the eyes of God we are all brothers and sisters. It’s time we started treating each other like it. Furthermore, we never know what may be going on in someones life. A small act of kindness could renew someone that would otherwise be broken.