“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living,
we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”
-Richard Rohr, O.S.F.
The first month of our calendar year is often a time for new things. A new year brings new hopes, new resolutions, and quite possibly new lives. We long to see things change for the better. One of the tenants of community building that we talk about in our Washington School Neighborhood is economic development. How can we help the neighborhood with new things to grow stronger in this way?
Two marvelous assets we share in WSN are quite a number of kids and many generous folks who wish to see them succeed. Through engagement at our garden plot on 10th St. we have developed a compost business for young people. We’re starting small – we currently have two teams of kids who are publicizing and carrying out weekly compost collection (fruits and veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds…). They are working for tips, and the compost gets collected and used to enrich the community garden plots. Beyond helping these kids earn some spending money and helping enrich the soil, my hope is that the participants might get a taste for entrepreneurial ventures, a sense of ecological responsibility, and make lasting connections with a cross section of the many different people that make up our neighborhood.
I’m hopeful that this small effort might grow in such a way that it helps us all to “live ourselves into new ways of thinking,” as Richard Rohr might say.
~Andrew Spidahl, Neighborhood Connector