Parker Palmer is an author I have learn't much from. His deep spiritual and personal understanding is illuminating. This quote about the gift of community life is worth pondering:-
"…But even as we act to evoke community, we must remember that community itself is a gift to be received, not a goal to be achieved. We have a strong tendency to make community one more project among many, to struggle and strain to come into relationship with one another, only to find that the stress of the very efforts exhausts us and drives us apart. Still, time after time we try to "make" community happen in the same effortful and self-defeating ways. Why? Because as long as we are the makers, we remain in control; and as long as we are in control, we will not be vulnerable to the risks of true community…" (Palmer, The Active Life p.136)
