I believe it takes community.

I remember when I was volunteering for my kids' grade school and a woman said to me “If you want to get something done, you have to do it yourself!” clearly that befuddled me and stuck with me to this day. I always preferred the idea that “it takes a village” and I always love being surrounded by community.  

I understand where she is coming from as some people don’t act quickly enough for us or have the same ideas as we do for the project, or even work with the same time lines, and each time someone fails us in our expectations we trust them less.

What I do know is that I didn’t get to where I am in my business without the support of family, friends, my students/clients, business coaches and other teachers. If I tried to do this by myself, I would definitely be struggling and really wouldn’t be where I am today.

I was reading a story last week in the book “Boundless Compassion” by Joyce Rupp, about Nobel Peace Prize winnerWangari Maathai- a member of the Kenyan Kikuyu tribe. She decided she would replant trees in her badly deforested country. The land suffered from erosion due to this deforestation. She set out to plant trees by herself, and in time the seedlings died. What she realized was that she needed the entire village to help with this effort. So she taught the villagers the value of the trees for their community and organized groups to care for the plantings. Through these relationships and community she was able to plant and keep alive 30 million trees.

"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. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing."– Jane Vanier

We’ve been separated from each other for the past 2 years, let's see where we can come together again and enjoy being part of a community.