One Person
This week I embarked on a new project and I’d like to share it with all of you.
My original title for this blog post was, “Insight: What’s possible when ‘one person’ is able to ‘see’ the human experience in an entirely new light?” I reduced the title to “One Person,” to help me remember the core idea that surfaces again and again for me in various “forms” when I engage the world with little on my mind. All I will need going forward is those two words to remember that all it takes is a single individual to change the hearts of many.
I had the good fortune to visit Dave Nichols on Thursday and Friday, the “last gasp” of February 2017. Both Dave and myself were fresh off of our participation in Center For Sustainable Change’s Global Telesummit, “Creating Transformative Communities Worldwide,” Dave as a facilitator, myself as a contributor. I was very inspired by the visit and host’s presence. While there, Dave took me over to meet Nate Moore, Operations Director at Independence Place Community Living, a transitional housing enterprise in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In a quiet and self-effacing way, Nate is making a profound difference in the lives of the individuals who have had, and are having, the good fortune to reside for shorter or longer periods of time at Independence Place. Many, if not most, of those who occupy the facility, have come to Nate and his staff after months or years of struggle—with the challenges of homelessness, PTSD, dependency, and other issues.
Nate had experienced struggles of his own following his distinguished service in the U.S. Navy. Dave Nichols (one person) introduced Nate to principles of innate health as originally articulated by one person, theosopher Sydney Banks. Dave had been introduced to the principles by Roger Mills (one person), a contemporary of Syd Banks, many years earlier.
Nate has, in turn, by his presence and his understanding of innate health, been able catalyze change in the tenants of Independence Place.
I want to tell the story of Sydney, Roger, Dave, Nate and the tenants of Independence Place as a means of sharing this life-altering understanding myself. Nate has invited me to come and spend some time at IP, living for awhile in one of the units and sharing in the life of the community he has fostered. While there, I will interview Dave and Nate, but more importantly those served by the enterprise, in order to craft a book devoted to profiles of the residents and staff at Independence Place.
I am hopeful that the book will inspire others to seek out the rewards of a life fueled by an understanding of the principles behind our experience of life. In my mind’s eye, I can visualize Nate offering copies of the book to visitors and residents who come to Independence Place. Anything is possible. Perhaps the media will wish to feature the story of IP in their broadcasts and bylines. Perhaps residents of IP will come to know the power of the principles more readily when they learn how others have experienced that power before them. Perhaps Dave, the CSC staff, and the many supporters of and contributors to CSC will be inspired to attract others, “one person at a time,” to see for themselves what they, as one person, may do make a difference in the human community.
John Countryman
*There is no physical “Center” and there is no “The” before the title of the operation, because rather than a “thing,” the name represents an “action” that all of us may take—to “center,” to “bring together the known energies of the universe” in the service of sustainable change and a more enlightened life.