self, teamship, & community ...

I've been on a quest to understand my longing to find connection at a deep level.  What am I doing wrong and what am I doing right? Then I started to create a visual.  This visual has my mind rethinking my game strategy for my life.  So far I have three orbits. 

The first ring is self.  To truly function in the human society as a whole, you really must understand how you work.  Balance has been my key to open up my life to engagement and wholeness. First I cut my life into two halves - personal and professional. So with anything that has to do with home, dreams, or passions, I keep it personal.  Anything that I give outward like work is kept professional.  This keeps me in check so there is no leakage in inappropriate places.  I have made another break down - my surface and my depth.  I am a pretty intense person and have grown to be more of a sensitive.  When others see my depth, they offen confuse it with depression.  That was before I found Joy.  However, I have been polishing my surface and have personally found that it really is helpful for me to engage others.

My second ring is teamship. This is where the group or couple functions as one unit.  There are differences but the strengths and weaknesses work together for a common goal. Yes, the dreams and passions might vary but as a team all for one - one for all.  Meaning that you fight for his dream as well as your own and of course he better be fighting for your dreams as well as his own. If your teamship is riddled with holes and you noticed that you two aren't in the same place, you better reline or maybe you labeled it wrong.

My third ring is community.  A town is a picture of what a mean. You need people to build the roads, others to build the homes, still others to build businesses. Each one is important to the community. It is the same with people relationships. With people we have connections and people have their uses. No, please don't take this wrong. We all have some pretty great times and experiences with some pretty great friends. Unfortuately, they don't always stay. Some expire, some just in end up in some other space, and still others fade slowly. Our times are good yet life speeds on without our say.

We often confuse team and community. They are different and if we learn them well, we will know teamship better and won't be played a fool. Teamship is sacred and solid. Community is engaging and flowing. Both are needed and even desired in our life. Don't hold a friendship close and call it teamship when it is better suited to be more of a community. It hurts you. And don't hold yourself in from others when it is more suited to be experienced like a community. Anytime you take yourself out on the town, know that it is a community... a give and take. You won't feel so alone.

try it :
Go to the movie house by yourself. See it through the eyes of community. See the teenage girls wanting to sit in your row? Smile and let them know it is ok my moving your feet.