Ninegates

Our Graduate Community

At the core of every human heart lives a longing ~ a longing to be part of something larger or greater than oneself. At the same time, in the midst of our bustling lives, workplaces, Zoom meetings, and cyber-relationships around the world, even within our own families, we can feel isolated and alone.

Following is an excerpt from a longer article by Deborah Jones, In the True Spirit of Community, published in Spirituality and Health:

A viable community is alive and diverse. It is organic in nature and inclusive in spirit. It empowers its members to evolve, with leadership growing out of its center. Our Graduate Community is viable in these ways. The Nine Gates Board of Directors are Graduates of the Mystery School. School Staff are Graduates who train and volunteer to serve the School and its students. Staff membership is team-oriented, where leadership rotates dependent upon skills needed in the moment. Leadership and responsibility are shared, and accountability emerges from trust.

In the true spirit of our Graduate Community, individuality and consensus-building toward common goals are valued over conformity. Like-hearted rather than like-minded, individuals seek out each other’s points of view for perspective and balance. In the true spirit of community, each person is invaluable and irreplaceable. That means so are you.

Click here for the rest of this article.

Learning to live in the true spirit of community, within the larger community of human beings and our planet, is a worthwhile endeavor. It reminds us that community is about relationship, where our longing to belong is turned inward and experienced first within our own forgiving hearts.