A guest post from Benjamin Fader at the Be Live Love blog.

Have you heard the expression, “It takes a village to raise a child”? I believe in that idea. The challenge is our own felt isolation in a fragmented and hectic culture.

I love the deep pride and passion I feel in my Burien community. I meet more people all the time who are committed to this place and to the people who inhabit it, and I’m thrilled to be such a person. Sometimes things feel lonely, and it’s tempting to blame “society” without seeing my own role in my removal from connection. Other times, it feels like my best efforts toward connection run into a seeming wall of the same systemic realities– we are all busy and fragmented!

There is a now-and-not-yet reality to “the village.”

Now, at this moment, there are other people in your midst. There are others standing for connection and creating meaningful work in your own community. There are the family members you have and the friends you keep.

Not yet are the unfinished possibilities, the unexpressed desires, the unwritten dreams. To create a community worth having requires cultivation, but only the cultivation of what IS already. So let’s bring those into the now.

Some tribes, like the be/live/love community, exist across varying spaces. Villages, however, occupy shared physical space. Whether your village is your family, your church, or your city, cultivating that support network and creating a circle of trust CAN be done and will have a larger ripple.

To get started, here are three VERY SIMPLE action steps:

1. Make a list. Take inventory of your dreams for your family, your place, your community.
2. Start a conversation. Find people who are dreaming big for your community and connect.
3. Get into action. Whether the habit is simply being available and present or it is to a specific project, sign your name and get going.

We all have needs. We all have longings. We all have dreams.

We can do this. There is a beautiful abundance available right around us, and we can have a hand in sharing our gifts and presence with one another. 

Let’s build a tribe of trust and unearth a village right around us. 

Read more from Benjamin Fader and his epic mission:

The mission and manifesto of Be|Live|Love are baked into the name. Be yourself. Live your dream. Love your neighbor. It’s that simple, but no one said it would be easy.