A Treasure Hunt
/John McKnight has recently written that there are at least 6 powerful characteristics of neighbors that empower their neighborhoods. His list and a portion of his description are:
Cooperation is the power to join with your neighbors to create a future.
Hospitality is the power to welcome.
Generosity is the power to give.
Kindness is the power to care.
Accepting fallibility creates the power to enjoy and work with each other in spite of our failures, deficiencies and differences. It creates the glue that holds us together in spite of our human nature.
Finally, there is forgiveness. This is a word with a wide range of meaning and plenty of baggage. At the risk of oversimplifying, my definition would be that forgiveness is the power to restore.
McKnight asserts that “Each of these qualities is abundant among neighbors and when they are combined they create peace in a place.” This is a compelling belief to me. And I suspect there is a simple starting point that we can take to live into this belief: notice these characteristics in our neighbors. If you are up for this challenge, I invite you to join me in reflecting regularly on when I see my neighbors embodying these characteristics. I’ve only been doing this specific practice for a few days, but I already find it very encouraging.
Beyond this, I believe the next and very important step is to let my neighbors know when I see these characteristics in them. I suspect most of us struggle to see these gifts within ourselves, so we need people around us who can honor and celebrate these gifts. What a life-giving practice this will be!
If you have characteristics you would add, or experiences from noticing or pointing out these gifts in your neighbors, please let us know about it.
And to read the entirety of McKnight’s article on this (which I highly recommend) check it out here.