Treasured days

My parents were here for a week and Rekha’s mother is now here with us. A week before that Chetan (my brother) was here for a couple of days along with his 4 yr old son. All the visits were far better, more enjoyable than what I would have expected. The way Adhrit (Chetan’s son) played with Siddharth and Shreya was a treat to watch. Papa’s appreciation of the house, the way he got involved with the work here and the visible enjoyment he seemed to experience here was so very nice. My mother-in-law’s comment that this is probably the first time since her marriage, that she’s really enjoying a visit was touching. All these experiences have really made all the effort and hard work worth it and much more. What no amount of talk and conscious effort could have achieved was automatically done without any intention to do so. They felt that life was good here, very good. The long chats I had with Chetan, without any of our egos coming in the way had something to do with what we’ve been able to do to this place. After many years, we were ‘communicating’.

A thought, which crossed my mind couple of days ago was ‘Why do people try to create intentional communities?’ ‘Why do we keep searching for like-minded people to bond with and even live with, when we’re unable to bond with and live with heart-connected people?’ Communities haven’t come into existence through conscious effort or a plan. They’ve just happened. In many cases, it is related families staying together, which turned into a community. Is it really possible for just like-minded people, i.e. people, who have identical thoughts on certain subject to really create a community, which is bond together? In a family, at least one aspect is given, with forms the base of living together – love & affection. In intentional communities, people hope to first have the minds aligned and later hearts connected. Quite an uphill task!