Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Opening Ritual

[Cheryl A. Charis-Graves (ccharis]

I heard that Heartwood in Colorado read or reads their mission statement at the
beginning of each meeting. With a strong and resonant mission statement, that
could be an opening ritual. Have members possible take turns reading it. Or
read it together. Or, depending on how long it is, have each line read in turn
by a different member.

Although we did not end up doing it, I thought of collecting an object to
represent the mission of each subgroup or team or committee, whatever you are
calling them, and grouping them together with something that represents the
"heart" of the community. Then, at the beginning of each meeting, you could
take the objects out of their storage "basket" or whatever, and place them on a
low table or circular rug in the center of the meeting area, to represent that
this is the "core" of the community. Being the visual culture that we are, I
thought something visual would be helpful. There are a lot of variations on
this theme: an object from each family, representing their reason for being
here; objects that represent community for the group; if you have the land,
something that comes from the land; etc.

You could do something more physical, stand in a circle and gently rub the back
of the person on your left, then turn and rub the back of the person on your
right, to represent that we have each other's "back."

I'll bet Tree and/or Rob have ideas.

Cheryl
Harmony Village, Golden Colorado



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