Stone soup

Do you remember the children's book Stone Soup? It's a folklore story.

Hungry travelers who have nothing but a big iron pot come to a new town. They put water in the pot and a few stones. They start a fire in the village square, and put the water and stones on to boil. The villagers ask the travelers what they are cooking. They say, "Stone soup. It's delicious, but it just needs some vegetables."

One villager brings a few carrots, another a potato, another parsley and so on, and before you know it, everyone sits down to a delicious soup.

As you know, Heaven Admin is working on the funding and building of a spiritual community in Argentina. The three prongs of Spirit Being Human are spirituality, sustainability, and community.  I do believe that spirituality comes first. Certainly, there has to be a common ground, and spirituality is a good one all right.

However, I'll start with community.

I discovered that I had no idea what exactly people have in mind when they talk of an intentional community. I must have had the idea that it is like a camp, and we always have to have meetings.

The story of Stone Soup helps me get a down-to-earth sense of community.  I have been quite into solitude much of my life. More recently I am getting into the spirit of joining with others. I no longer want to live on an island, yet, at the same time, I crave to be me. The way I see it now, in a community, everyone can put the vegetables they like into the pot. The pieces don't have to be cut alike. We don't have to have a consensus on everything. If there is a party, not everyone has to go to it. Not everything has to be voted on.  I want to be friendly and be a friend while having my privacy, no pressure, no pretense, as few rules as possible, and a lot of acceptance.  We naturally are an integral part of everyone's well being. I do want to know that I am not alone, and also that there is plenty of room for solitude and self-expression within community. We have freedom, and so does everyone else. Of course, we are deeply considerate.

Tomorrow I will write about sustainability and what I discovered sustainability means to me.

I will save spirituality, even though I think it comes first, for last. I know what spirituality means to me, but I'm still trying to figure out what spirituality is.

Any ideas?