Last week I shared that I’m currently writing Community Rising: On love, belonging and togetherness. I asked you to Nominate Your Community for research and potential stories. (Nominations are still open.)
I was blown away by the response and I’m still wading through all the emails. Thank you if you were one of the warm-hearted communitarians who responded. If I haven’t replied to you yet, I promise I will!
There were one-line responses to my call-out like “YES! This is the book that is needed right now. Thank you.” and long emails from people nominating their own communities or other communities I could research. I was sent links for books, TED talks and documentaries to watch and numerous people picked up the phone to share their ideas.
If I ever needed affirmation that this was the book to write, this was it.
Quite honestly however, I’ve been a little overwhelmed. The hours required to write this book literally tripled overnight. It’s left me with a dilemma. How do I conduct all the research and the interviews myself? How do I include all these fabulous stories? The more I share my story, the more people are reaching out to share theirs – I want to hear them but how do I manage that and keep writing?!
Whereas writing is predominantly a solo pursuit, ‘community’ is a collective human pursuit of connection and conversation. Somehow I need to find a balance between the two. Peter Block, author of Community: The structure of belonging says that at its core, community answers the question of “What can we create together?”
Which has left me with one last question. So, how might Community Rising be created together? I have no ideas or answers yet. Perhaps you do? If so, I’d love to hear them.
It’s time for community to rise and take its rightful place in the rebuilding of society and the new economy. Thank you for joining me on the journey. If you know of anyone with a communitarian spirit that might like to be kept abreast of this work please share this email and suggest they subscribe.
As a thank you for following me, I’m offering The Purpose Project online course for just $97 (RRP $297) today. Use the coupon code ‘Purpose2020’.
As always, if I can be of service reach out. I’m here. I care.
With love
About me: I’m a Purpose Educator and author of The Purpose Project. I help leaders attract and retain the best people by harnessing the power of deep purpose and storytelling. I do this through The Purpose Project for Companies, a customised consultative process for co-creating a new purpose statement and The Purpose Project Course, a 7-step online course to help employees bring their own why to work.