• Take a community vacation
• Ideas?
• Write more blogs 
• Start a phone plan
• Buy a pig (a dead one that had a great life eating grass, rolling in mud, and feeling sunshine)
• Garage sale (to raise money for vacation?)
• Volunteer regularly 
• Stick to First Tuesday Activity Day. In lieu of regular book meet, we volunteer or do a fun thing together. 
• Visit each other's churches 
• Long bike ride 
• Katy
• Frisco
• Dirt Roads
• Teach a dance class 
• Take a dance class
• Contra 
• Garden together 
• Grow Shed for starting seedlings
• Plan crops to minimize overlap
• Make skin care products 
• Make house cleaners 
• Buy a giant bike 
• Business cards 
• Monthly movie club
• Cob house workshop

Long Term Goals

• Have a new home town (Springfield or somewhere else)
• Make a community product
• Beer
• Soap
• Fermented foods (kombucha, sour kraut, kimchi)
• Clothes
• Swords
• Find a stable living situation to better support each other 
• Buy land
• camping retreat
• build houses 
• DIY stuff 
• Tiny house stuff 

• To Set  A Fitness Goal: We will keep loose time on each trip and see if we get faster.

• To Study Phenology: Fancy word for the observation of changes with the seasons. Read ‘A Sand County Almanac’ by Aldo Leopold for a great example. I have gotten to see my yard and the trail at my work change throughout the year, but never such a dramatic natural location as the hollow.

• To Actually Use all of our Outdoor Gear: I have spent too much time and money on foul-weather gear that never gets used. As we have set our hike dates for the year already, we will inevitably encounter some funkiness and get to put our stuff to the test.

• To Spend Quality Time Together: Ryan recently moved from 7 feet away to 70 miles away and we need to do things together that don’t involve instruments every once in a while.

• They take weight off them tired joints: You can take as much as 25% of the force that would be on your knees and ankles and put them on your arms and shoulders.

• You haul butt: We were nearly running down these steep descents with no fear. On flat sections, you really can feel yourself being propelled by your arm strength.

• You literally cannot fall...ever: We crossed ice sheets, wet creek stepping stones, and slimy thawing mud flats. Never lost a step.

• You can poke stuff: Always useful.

In the Summer of 2012 Amber and I moved to Springfield, and right away we met with some friends at a breakfast cafe to talk about putting together an intentional community. We had a vision of what it could be like. As I reflect on that fateful breakfast several years later, I am happy to report that vision is a reality. In fact, the community that is now called Spare Key has far exceeded my hopes and expanded my vision.

We were looking for radical community. That is to say, a community that shared things. Our lives, our hopes, our day-to-day. We did not want to live in the same house with friends as we had successfully done in the past. We weren't looking for anything super immersive. We just wanted meaningful relationships with people that went beyond once-a-week interactions. And even that, in and of itself, is asking a lot. We didn't know if that kind of life would be in the cards for us at all.

As it turns out, we got much more than we asked. While the members of Spare Key do not live geographically close to one another, the community we have managed to generate actually feels more like a neighborhood than most actual neighborhoods do.

Spare Key has taught me many things over the past few years about the concept of community. Community is an abstract term, and can mean a lot of things. But while Spare Key is a community, I have come to think of it not so much as a place, or as a mission statement, or even as an expression of any philosophy or vision. I have conceptualized community primarily in those terms in the past. But now, to me, Spare Key is first and foremost a rich network of friendships.

And that's what we wanted all along.


~~~


(Jay's View from the Front Porch, January 2015)
sparekeycommunity@gmail.com

We're in phase one: Compiling a list of books from which to choose. Voting will begin once everybody has had a chance to add their book ideas to the list. Here's the list so far.


Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis (1944, 2009)

Expanding a series of radio talks into book form, Mere Christianity never flinches as it sets out a rational basis for Christianity and builds an edifice of compassionate morality atop this foundation.

The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community, Marc J. Dunkelman (2014)

“Marc Dunkelman gets it. In The Vanishing Neighbor, he shows how the traditional web of relationships that makes up American life is undergoing fundamental change, why it matters, and what we need to do about it.”

     -President Bill Clinton


 
Epiphany: True Stories of Sudden Insight to Inspire, Encourage and Transform, Elise Ballard (2014)

Have you ever experienced an epiphany, a life-changing moment or realization? This book is a collection of more than fifty revelations that changed lives forever. Elise Ballard started asking others if they had ever experienced these kinds of breakthroughs. What began as simple curiosity led to an unexpected and exciting journey.
Strengthsfinder 2.0, Tom Rath (2007)

Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment. While you can read this book in one sitting, you'll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself, and the world around you, forever.  



 
Blessing the Hands That Feed Us: What Eating Closer to Home Can Teach Us About Food, Community, and Our Place on Earth, Vicki Robin (2014)

Taking the locavore movement to heart, bestselling author and social innovator Vicki Robin pledged for one month to eat only food sourced within a 10-mile radius of her home. Her sustainable diet not only brings to light society’s unhealthy dependency on mass-produced foods but also helps her reconnect with her body and her environment.



Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, Karen Armstrong (2011)

In this important and thought-provoking work, Karen Armstrong—one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world—provides an impassioned and practical guide to helping us make the world a more compassionate place.





Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes, Nancy Tatom Ammerman (2013)

Ammerman examines the stories Americans tell of their everyday lives, from dinner table to office and shopping mall to doctor's office, about the things that matter most to them and the routines they take for granted, and the times and places where the everyday and ordinary meet the spiritual. 





The Art of Stillness, Pico Iyer (2014)

Iyer considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug. In our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. There’s never been a greater need to give ourselves permission to be still.
 




The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door, Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon (2012)

This unique and inspiring book asks the question: What is the most loving thing I can do for the people who live on my street or in my apartment building? Through compelling true stories of lives impacted, the authors show readers how to create genuine friendships with the people who live in closest proximity to them.




My House Our House: Living Far Better for Far Less in a Cooperative Household Paperback, Karen Bush, Louise S. Machinist, Jean McQuillin (2013) 

This is the story of three trailblazing women who came together to create a 21st century cooperative household. "Alternative" living arrangements account for a large and growing percentage of American households, and offer practical, economical solutions for people looking to live together for less and still maintain a high quality of life.


CoHousing Cultures: Handbook for Self-Organized, Community-Oriented and Sustainable Housing, Jovis (2013)

This handbook presents a selection of the most significant housing projects in Europe today, from Berlin, to Stockholm.






Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett (2011)

This book offers an in-depth exploration of a uniquely rewarding type of housing which is perfect for anyone who values their independence but longs for more connection with those around them. Written by an award-winning team, this fully-illustrated manual combines nuts-and-bolts practical considerations and design ideas.