Community

Every culture has a word for “Community”. It is one of the key ingredients that make us Human.
It is the Hub at the Center of the Wheel.
It is the spoke that connects us to the Rim.
It can also be the Whole Wheel.
In your Life’s Journey, how do you roll?

• Is the Wheel of Life leading you onwards and upwards?

OR

• Are you finding the Wheel rolling over you?

Let’s start with the all-important question of how you define “Community”? Is it limited to a physical location, or is it something broader in scope and quality?

Historically, geography, belief systems, economics, and class distinctions were the pegs that held down the tent of Community. Modern times have reconfigured and exploded every aspect of the traditional concepts of Community. The component parts no longer require (or demand) one central core definition. We are now multi-communal. We travel to experience many communities, and we bring our own multiverse of communities with us on that Journey. The very interactions and experiences not only offer up the possibility of broadening our understanding of community, but they can even change the very definitions we have of “Community”.

When we are out and about visiting Tanglewood in our summers, to see James Taylor or the Boston Symphony (or John Williams), we are connecting to a subset – a micro-community. The folk/rock/jazz scene is as much a part of the music community as is that of the classical enthusiasts. We weave in and out of many sub-communities, like earthworms, leaving behind golden trails of experience that enrich the soil of the Berkshire Community.

And then there are the delights of Dance, Theater, and the Fine Arts. If the whole world is a stage, then the Berkshires, and its companion communities in Western Mass as well as northwestern Connecticut and the Hudson Valley, join to form a cultural “Broadway”.

No Community is complete without its food (restaurants, farms, stores), and its lodgings. Berkshire CenterPoint is dedicated to highlighting all areas of the Community. This is an invitation to participate in the sharing of all the glorious dimensions of our “Neighborhood,” which has a 50-mile radius.

Economics and class structures do play a part in the modern configurations of the Community. It would be impossible to enjoy “food” in our communities without the chefs and servers in our restaurants, and the farmers and employees in our food stores. Some pay, some get paid. Those who get paid often put money back into the community through rent, food, etc. In my years in the Berkshire + area(s), I have seen widespread respect for this component. It adds immeasurably to the Community. Please take time to reflect upon this, and please send us your experiences about “respect”- be it positive or negative.

Coming from a NY/Westchester/Boston experience, I treasure diversity. A chief goal of CenterPoint is to cast a light upon the richness of the varieties of Community and thereby help increase positive connections within our Community. Healthy lifestyles are foundational to this, and there is a vast network of Lightworkers in the healing arts. There are spas, yoga studios, physical therapists, psychotherapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, spiritual teachers, and others dedicated to supporting our Journeys to Wholeness.  Let the word go out…

Finally, there is the natural beauty of our Region. The hills, mountains, rivers, and lakes form a very sacred bowl that helps support a healthy Community. Gratefully, we are (finally) beginning to honor the indigenous dwellers who lived here for countless generations before us, who lived in harmony with the Land. As we ski, boat, swim, hike, and fish, let us learn to live as these forbears did- holding the covenant of being Sacred Caretakers of Mother Earth. I have dedicated the property of which I am a steward, “Table Rock”, in that spirit. It is, with much Help, becoming a Sanctuary, a place to honor the very best to which we aspire, the very best of which we are.

The CenterPoint Community is a We/Us Community. It is already here…let us keep working (consciously) to uplift all within Our greater Communities.
Send us your thoughts, comments, and suggestions, for it is in this way that we can grow together.