Folks see our bags, or tag lines, and often ask – “How do you grow community?”
It is a question that we are continuing to work through and think about.
At the Homegrown Group, we believe that real estate transactions – the buying, selling, or renting of houses – is a way to grow community with like minded people, not only in regard to where they live, but also through expert customer care. We truly believe that where you live will have its way with you and change you. We believe it impacts all of us individually and then has ripple effects to be felt and experienced in one’s family and neighborhood, and ultimately turns mere houses of sticks, or stones, or stucco into homes of transformation, security, growth and love.
Creating meaningful holiday traditions can grow community as they serve to further bond people to shared expectations and routines.
This past Sunday, I met a couple who have done the same Christmas Party for the past forty-six years together. After taking a minute to process this, the gentleman then stated that his wife actually did it for two years before. So imagine – forty-eight years of a tradition of the the same type of party with most of the same guests – how wonderful! The theme that has been the constant for this party is “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The song written over a century ago by Frederic Austin in 1909. The theme is expressed in the food, and the decor and the centerpiece of a game/song when each guest or set of folks sings their line in turn when it is their turn in this growing carol as more and more verses are added. I can see the laughter and camaraderie created in the group as walls of embarrassment fall and everyone joins together in fun and memories as years gone by.
Want to know more about the carol itself? Here is a good link to explore more.
So, do traditions help to create community? YES!
WebMD states that there are three main benefits to following traditions:
- Helping people discern their place inside of the wider culture, especially if their or their family’s birth culture is different from the majority one.
- Developing a deeper connection to people that we love, and to those who have come before us.
- Traditions create a sense of stability and routine that can relieve anxiety, stress and even help us to sleep better.
Maybe it is time to think about the traditions that you are establishing within your community or family. The word tradition comes from the Latin word – “tradiare” – which means “to hand over, to transmit”. What systems, or ways of doing things are working and how are they growing the culture of your community and what it stands for or is all about? We all live within our stories, and our traditions will become a bedrock that helps to keep us tethered to our ideals and shared beliefs.
Sometimes, as with holiday traditions, we “re- member” or join ourselves to the past and all that has gone before in a way that puts us truly there in an embodied experience, not just a mental one. This powerful joining of our bodily members to the initial event vividly reminds us that we are not the first ones on this journey, and that we can benefit from all of those who have gone before. It also produces more than just intellectual ascent, but also feeling that leads to action.
It turns out that the main thread of the human story does stay the same through time and place. We can rely on traditions to help us find our place in the story and to give us hope for the future.