What Really Matters in a Community?

     What we do "is a very significant and integral part of many people’s lives. Bringing individuals together into community, exposing them to material that can challenge them, that can transform them, that can inspire them, and then watching and supporting them through those moments of transformation. That’s a very significant and important piece for individuals and for community. And that’s one of the concerns I have ... we’re losing places where that can happen in a very healthy, fulfilling way.

     I think what’s most important is the creation of communities in which we can be vulnerable to one another. A shared experience and vulnerability are key elements. Watching people become vulnerable with one another, or them watching me become vulnerable with them – those are moments when we’re touched and we think oh! And we have to see something differently, because you sense that someone else has some skin in that issue, or it’s a big thing for them, and we’ve never thought of that before. But when you’re sitting next to someone for whom something is a big thing, then you have to consider it and we open ourselves more fully I think.”

       Gretta Vosper, interviewed by Mary Hines on CBC Radio's "Tapestry" on Oct 4, 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/episode/2013/10/04/letting-it-go-gretta-vosper-miriam-katin-eulogies/

http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2410345126

     Meaningful Communities of Health-care Professionals: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/02/balint-groups-start-one.html  

     See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/01/sense-of-workplace-community-belonging.html 

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/