What's Your 2012 Community Building Resolution?

For the New Year, many of us are inclined to make personal resolutions… to exercise more, to eat better, to spend more time with our loved ones. That is definitely my modus operandi! For 5 years now, the New Year rolls in and I, once again, vow to kick my pastry habit. The result? Another year of me pigging out shamelessly (and I really mean shamelessly) on pastries.

Sigh.

So, for 2012, I’m vowing to make a new kind of resolution – wipe the slate clean and start afresh. Only this time, my resolution will be one that affects my community. It’s my very own 2012 ‘Community Building Resolution’ challenge!

After all, in the bigger scheme of things, no one but me (and my thighs!) is really affected if I utterly fail on my bid to make 2012 pastry-free. However, if I fail on my resolution to make my community better, we all lose out. Imagine, though, if I hold true to my commitment to improve my community – no matter how small that change might be – do you think that my little piece of the world will be better for it? Absolutely!

And so – here I go… throwing it out into the universe…my community resolution for 2012 is: to have more meaningful, courageous conversations with the people who live around me. And I mean REAL conversations!

This resolution was inspired by a chat that I had recently with older gentleman named Herman as I was out walking my dogs. Herman happens to live exactly one block away from me on the same side of the street. I’ve often paused in front of Herman’s house (mainly to let my bassets have a good chance for a sniff) and wistfully speculated on who my doppelganger might be if I lived at number 1417 instead of number 1317.

During one of these recent pauses, Herman happened to be out in his yard and we got to chatting. Turns out that Herman is a widower, with just a small extended family left in Calgary, who was a pet owner too but lost both his dogs to what he phrased as a malady of old age… death! I liked Herman instantly. I figure I might pop by Herman’s with some Christmas cookies this year to pass on some holiday cheer and offer some company. I think that if I do, my little piece of the world will be better for it.

Imagine now if others in my little neighbourhood decided to also make a small but positive change in their community. If say… my neighbour does the same as does their neighbour, and their neighbour, and their neighbour, and their neighbour. Before we knew it, we would have a place where you’d want to set down roots, raise your children, and walk your dogs.

So I’m throwing this out to all of you…make a resolution this year that will help make your community better - consider this your 2012 ‘Community Building Resolution’ challenge!

You can even join me later as I host an online conversation on January 18th aimed at those interested in sharing ideas about how to positively affect the quality of life in their communities. I’d be interested to hear about what positive change you plan to make in the lives of those around you.