Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Celebrating milestones during development?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Nov 14, 2008, at 6:48 PM, Kristen Simmons wrote:

> Did any communities celebrate smaller milestones? Topping off and
> groundbreaking ceremonies are in the distant future, and I don't  
> want to
> wait until then to have a celebration!

I was still living out of state until about 4 months before we moved  
in. After that, looking back, it seemed as if each meeting had  
something to celebrate. They felt like celebrations.

Sometimes it was being happy that a 'strange' person turned out to be  
a good facilitator. So where there was a lot of work and a lot of  
decisions and a lot of frustration, so much was happening that there  
was always something to be happy about or to be relieved about.

We had a member who taught at Gallaudet University for the deaf. She  
taught us the practice of shaking your hands a bit above your years,  
sort of a fluttering, rather than clapping hands. That was really a  
celebratory action that occurred several times during a meeting.

Now all the decisions that come to a meeting are big and usually have  
been under discussion for ages. Small things have either been decided  
or can be decided by teams.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org