Little Pink Houses for You and Me...

Aww, c'mon.

You know it...and now it's in your head!

Me too, though I don't mind though because I love John Mellencamp, and I love that song. But what I'm really getting at is the idea of community.

This morning, out of the blue, with no prefacing or context in which to put the question, I asked my son, "What's the theme for today?" And he said, "Going to people's houses."

From the mouths of babes....

So today's theme in the quest for sanity and more conscious living, is community.

We all know what it means when we see it posted on signs or in ads selling you something, but how does that apply in everyday life? And what does it mean to you? Getting to know your neighbors better? Adopting a greater sense of responsibility to your town? Checking in on those that are elderly? Having a block party? Or is your community in a larger sense? Your state, your country, or everyone on the globe?

It can grow as big as you let it. And let it, because we spend a great deal of our time with our faces plastered to our monitors, our fingers dashing speedily across our smartphones, and in exchange have sacrificed facetime, downtime, quality time. We have the world on our screens, but we also have the world outside our doors, and we are all aware that we are becoming increasingly isolate, amidst our world growing "smaller" via our digital age.

This week, step outside your comfort zone!

Try volunteering for the homeless shelter or food pantry.

Invite your neighbors over for dinner, if you know them.

Do you know your clerks in your stores? Ask their names!

Are there children in your neighborhood who want to babysit for you, or do yard work? Employ them! By doing so, you will be giving yourself a little rest, and giving THEM a chance to learn about responsibility AND community, in one turn.

Give the guy that lives on your street a ride to the bus stop when you see him running for his life to catch it!

Check in with your neighbors who are elderly and live alone. And why not bring over some home-cooked food? I bet they would love the gesture and the company.

And these are just ideas. I am sure you have a million more of them.

What does community mean to you?