<<Een boom is geen bos, kan geen lokaal evenwichtig klimaat tot stand brengen en is weerloos overgeleverd aan weer en wind.

Terwijl veel bomen samen voor een ecosysteem zorgen dat extreme warmte en kou matigt, veel water opslaat en heel vochtige lucht veroorzaakt.

In een dergelijke omgeving kunnen bomen beschut leven en heel oud worden.

Om dat te bereiken moet de gemeenschap koste wat kost behouden blijven.>>

Peter Wohlleben, boswachter (in: ‘Het verborgen leven van bomen’)

*****

<< Individualisme houdt geen rekening met de behoefte aan samenhang, aan gemeenschap. Het is fictie om de mens te zien als een individu dat in vrijheid zijn wereld vormgeeft. Zo werkt het niet. Mensen hebben een bedding nodig. […]

Er is behoefte aan nieuw engagement. […] Ik kom veel mensen tegen die betrokkenheid met hun omgeving uitstralen. Hoe is onze zorg geregeld? Waar liggen de fietspaden? Maar met het immateriële, met het verlangen naar bedding en samenhang weten we ons geen raad. >>

Bas Heijne, columnist, essayist, NL (interview door Frank Van Zijl, in ‘De Morgen’, 2016)

*****

<< From the moment I first entered a cohousing community, it was apparent that I was in a special place.

While attending the University of Copenhagen in 1980, I discovered cohousing on my one-mile walk to and from the train station each day.

I walked by single-family homes, apartments, and clustered housing. There was never anyone in between the houses; there was no chatting, no visiting — and there were no people.

But there was one cluster of brick houses where I saw a lot of activity between the houses. People were stopping with laundry basket in hand to talk to their neighbors. In the evening, there might be three or five people sitting around a table with a cup of tea or a beer. On the weekends, two or three people were in a parking area looking under the hood of a car. >>

Charles Durrett, Cohousing architect, US  (in: ‘The Senior Cohousing Handbook, 2009)

*****

<< Een goed huis kopen kan iedereen; Goede buren zijn echter onbetaalbaar. >>

Chinees spreekwoord

*****

<< Ninety-nine percent of the time humans have lived on this planet we’ve lived in tribes, groups of 12 to 36 people.

Only during times of war, or what we have now, which is the psychological equivalent of war, does the nuclear family prevail, because it’s the most mobile unit that can ensure the survival of the species.

But for the full flowering of the human spirit we need groups, tribes. >>

Margaret Mead, antropologe

*****

<< Forming a community is not really about your property-purchase and development goals, but about generating a sense of community – a kind of group well-being in which you’ve connected with each other emotionally and know each other deeply. >>

<< As you’d expect, the same kind of communication and process skills that enhance love relationships do the same in community – sharing from the heart, listening to each other deeply, telling difficult truths without making each other wrong. >>

<< … most groups’ experience of what makes people feel connected, and committed to each other [is]  working together in shared labor, eating together, telling each other their life’s experiences, speaking from the heart about personal or interpersonal issues, singing, dancing, doeing rituals, and celebrating birthdays and holidays.>>

Diana Leafe Christian, auteur, groepsfacilitator, US (in: ‘Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities’, 2003)