Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Opening Ritual

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

As a member of a long-established group, I'd encourage new groups to get 
some rituals going early on. Ways of opening, closing, celebrating 
members joining, farewells, memorials, birthdays, comings of age, 
whatever. Because then whoever joins you is already accepting that this 
is "what we do". Of course these can evolve with the membership and mood 
of the group, but it's really hard to impose rituals on a pre-existing 
group. 

I love such rituals, and see how they help bond a community. But there 
are people here who would be very resistant to some of that (but might 
not, on the other hand, have refrained from joining had we been already 
doing such). We do do a group hug -- all in a circle, facing the center, 
arms around waists, at the end of big meetings (and a few people slip 
away before we do it, not enjoying that). I just wish we'd put more in 
place at the beginning. We even had trouble getting any agreement with 
some sort of formal opening about giving thanks, at our Thanksgiving 
Dinner. 

At the opening of meetings, there is always some sort of "check in" - 
usually a question to answer, like "What made you happy recently?" Our 
facilitation team may also include some reminders of our mission or 
values or consensus process. But rather little I'd call ritual. 

So don't be shy about trying that sort of thing out while your group is 
still small!

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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