Today I was reading a friends blog and was inspired by her thoughts on the existense of God.

"All I can come up with is hope that we are not alone in this world, that there is more than this."

When you boil it down to this hope, the possibilities for joy are endless.

Fringe Thinking - Applicable to Community Living

Ostrom's 'research brought this topic from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention', "by showing how common resources—forests, fisheries, oil fields or grazing lands, can be managed successfully by the people who use them, rather than by governments or private companies". Ostrom's work in this regard, challenged conventional wisdom, showing that common resources can be successfully managed without government regulation or privatization .

Ostrom identifies eight "design principles" of stable local common pool resource management:^[4]

1. Clearly defined boundaries (effective exclusion of external unentitled parties);
2. Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources are adapted to local conditions;
3. Collective-choice arrangements allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process;
4. Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators;
5. There is a scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules;
6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution are cheap and easy of access;
7. The self-determination of the community is recognized by higher-level authorities;
8. In the case of larger common-pool resources: organization in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local CPRs at the base level.

Luke's Conclusion: Seems like common sense findings but no doubt the task of successful implementation would also deserve a Nobel prize.

Sky ran it's candid lengths round the hoop of horizon

"This winter before Maytree came with Dreary, Lou had been orbiting
one galaxy of ideas as close as she dared. Could a person hold all
people past and present in awareness? She further wondered if doing so
was, by some errant chance, the point-toward what end she had no clue.
Not that life required a point. But she found herself starting to sway
toward eventually considering that there might be one. A point. Any
point." Annie Dillard...The Maytrees

Stars Sang In Their Sockets Through The Night

Annie Dillard imagines like me.

Luke Wilson
P: 778-668-3533
B: http://when-inspired.blogspot.com/

Mr. Surprise visited me this week, sent from author Roger Hargreaves. He brought joy and reassurance when things were uncertain in life. The message he carried said, "interesting opportunity that suits your skills, passions, interests and situation...but act fast!". How tangible an experience, thought myself, the reader. It isn't everyday you run into the middle of a storybook and have the result become real change in your everyday life.

As he left, the reader wondered; who will be next to meet Mr. Surprise. Will it be Mrs. Surprise? This is silly, I don't live in book. But oh, this encounter did feel magical.
--
Luke Wilson

What is the value of this community?

It is hard to ask this question because our culture tells us to liberate ourselves? From parents, restrictions, rules, and just be yourself. But in our community we have been given a freedom that transcendences these temporal freedoms. It is the freedom that comes with belonging/security/ walking into a big old mansion and being able to call it home. Not because of the space but because of the faces, those bonds that we have made here. These bonds differ between all the members of the community but on a more general scale, we have lived together in community and there is no way to deny that we share something. The ironic part about the whole situation is that the sharing has made us richer – we have shared struggles, laughter, first-things thoughts. This sharing is the value of community.

The challenge to myself and to our community is to posture ourselves in a stance of gratitude for this experience. More than just the delight that comes from saying “I did this awesome program” but the gratitude that comes from sharing in the richness of God’s plan for his people. This is a mysterious thing but through our grateful eyes, we must realize its greatness.

As Wendell Berry once composed:

We live by mercy if we live.

To that we have no fit reply

But working well and giving thanks,

Loving God, loving one another,

To keep Creation's neighborhood. (1-5)

"...in order to detect divine agency, we need a larger number of events before a pattern emerges so that God's intentions become manifest". (Diogenes Allen 174 "Divine Agency in a Scientific World")

This happens in both the historic and present community/ individually. Some examples to think about - Israel, Joseph, Jesus, SSU, Forestview, most of us.

Wilson's Warbler

Yesterday, I joined my friends on a trip to the museum of nature. Best in this trip, was the final floor - BIRdS. Birds are symbols of the soul, freedom, and power.

These flying creatures seem to be a new trend these days but why? I think I can relate to those who buy shirts with birds designed into landscapes. It is a form of expression, one that shows our common longing for the symbols of a bird. What's more, I realized that there are hundreds of varieties when discussing just one bird. Just like youth who want to have their own identity, unique from the rest of their peers, so to birds have become one of the most diverse and distinctive creatures. Yet, their songs have the ability to unity them all!

• The Wilson's Warbler is found in a large diversity of environments in the winter. It is the only migrant warbler regularly found in tropical high plains (paramo).
• Identified by the black cap.
• The Wilson's Warbler trends toward brighter, richer coloration from the eastern part of the range to the west. The Pacific coast populations have the brightest yellow, even orangish, foreheads and faces. Western-central and Alaskan birds are slightly larger than the eastern and Pacific coast populations.
  

A small variety of Warbler's:

Bay Breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black Throated Blue Warbler
Black Throated Gray Warbler
Black Throated Green Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Chestnut Sided Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Golden Cheeked Warbler
Grace's Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Kirtland's Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Northern Waterthrush
Ovenbird
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Yellow Breasted Chat
Yellow Throated Warbler