What Does Community Mean to You?

Simple introduction to my thinking with more posts to follow below…

Finding your homesteading community is an incredibly personal journey and one that reaches into your core and defines your reality. Community is something to be very grateful for, but also, it’s important to choose it wisely. Community must be cultivated, grown and maintained with kindness and compassion.

Community and Friendship

As a homesteader, you may be starting your journey in your current location, or perhaps you are moving. I have experienced both. If you find community AND friendship, it is a dream combination. Let me explain. In each situation you are navigating a new world while trying to discover other people who are also joining this homesteading world, or perhaps are already on the journey and a community is happy to welcome you into the fold. Friendship can take a variety of forms and all of them are acceptable as long as they allow you to continue to thrive, grow and nurture your self and your family’s world. Friendship and community is a give and take, in which both parties thrive and support one another.

The challenging part about creating community is that you must be aware of your own place in this world. What that means is that often times, we create community, and it isn’t what we had hoped. Perhaps community is one-sided, or simply unkind due to competition or the inability to connect with one another due to differences. Therefore, be grounded in who you are, why you are here, what your personal believes are about friendship, community, giving/taking and being mutually supportive. Community thrives on a balance of support. That being said, let’s talk about all the benefits of community when it thrives!

Transactional Community that Works

All transactions are not bad. Community is a head and heart investment on various levels. Sometimes, it is as simple as sharing what you grow or make. Community can reciprocate through bartering in a way that benefits each of you! We often trade with community members and find that the trade is beneficial to all of us. Also, many times you can create opportunities, such as a farmers’ market, a joint bake sale, a community barn raising, and so on, that helps everyone. These can be essential to your community and don’t require that you are necessarily sharing your deepest secrets over a cup of coffee every Saturday morning. Find these opportunities and grow them! We have benefited greatly from casual friendships within our community and kindness still prevails in these connections.

Community that has My Heart

You may also find community that becomes like family. If you are searching for this, be patient and let it grow. Close friendships are sacred and honestly rare. Nurture these friendships and enjoy the love. If you find someone whom you just “click” with and have mutual interests to boot – this is a beautiful thing. Homesteading is enriched by these moments where you get to have coffee and choose a task to do together. I just spent the day canning green beans, chicken broth, pickles and more with my husband – these days are the best.

How do I find my People?

Finding your people depends very much on your temperament. My husband is a social bug, we can’t go anywhere in which he doesn’t know someone and strike up a conversation! I am more of an organized, friendship creator – what that means is I find friendship through organized ventures, whether it be my farmstand, a mom’s group I created back in the day, a cause/action of some sort that benefits all of us. I find my people through organizing. It’s not good or bad, it’s just who I am and who my husband is! So, think through how you typically have found your people in the past, examine the good examples which thrived during their hay-day (not all friendships are meant to last…some are seasonal based on time, location, and experience), and use these examples to support you. Also, don’t overthink it – go with your gut and trust it!

Creating Community takes Effort

Simply put, if you want to create community, you must reach out and/or reciprocate when someone else reaches out. You must listen, and in return, your community must listen and hear you. Time is a luxury and should be treated like gold, so choose wisely and always make sure that your self, your time, your family’s well-being, is paramount. Your community must be mutually beneficial. Communities grow and change, flow with it! You may be in a season of raising kids and your community will be found with other families of children at similar ages. Later, this may change. Be open to new community and a new season of friendship. You got this.