Neighborhood Rule of Life
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Practice
Walk.
Walk at a time when people are out. Walk the same route at the same time. Walking helps you move at a pace to be present to people and notice details of place.
Map.
Write neighbors’ names, work, pets, and interests on a simple map. Making a neighborhood map with names is a way to add specificity to your prayers.
Regular.
Find a neighborhood coffee shop, grocery, restaurant, dry cleaner, or garden center. Be someone who knows names, tips well, and is curious about employees’ lives beyond work. Being a regular creates a rhythm to build connections with people and places.
Listen.
Listen to neighborhood leaders—City Council, Community Resource Officers, or Faith Leaders. Invite them to coffee or lunch. Listening to leaders in your neighborhood is a way to know its needs.
Learn.
Learn the history of your neighborhood. Visit a nearby cemetery, museum, or local library. Learning is a way to begin to love where you live with understanding and common memory.
Welcome.
Host a front-yard happy hour, a driveway ice cream social, or a holiday party for your apartment building. Hospitality in your home helps move beyond surface interactions to being known.
A Rule of Life is ancient language for spiritual practices to organize your life around what you love. We all have, consciously or unconsciously, created rhythms of life to protect and preserve what we value. Regardless of our age, gender, or personality type, we all have a Rule of Life. We all have practices we form. And those practices form us.
A helpful clarification is that the word “rule” is an English translation of a Latin phrase. The original word was “regula,” which is where we get our words “regular” or “ruler.” It’s a standard we set. Many linguists offer that the word “regula” was historically used to describe a trellis in a vineyard. It is the structure around which life is rooted and fruitful. The practices of a Rule of Life are not the focus of our lives any more than a trellis being the focus of a vineyard. No one walks through a vineyard and proclaims, “That is a nice trellis!” It is about the vine and the wine. Our Rule of Life is about love and life.
A Neighborhood Rule of Life is a set of practices to help us be more rooted in the love of God and the love of neighbor. The goal is not activity, but rhythms which lead to your life and faith becoming more deeply rooted. It is practices with intention and attention toward cultivating love for neighbor and neighborhood.
The majority of perspectives and practices of our cultural moment lean toward the dis-integration of person and place. Without intentional counter formation, this sense of placelessness contributes to the loneliness and divisiveness we witness daily. Crafting a Neighborhood Rule of Life is arranging your life to be more present to God, your neighbors, and your neighborhood. It is a way of being more aware of the sacredness of the people and place around you. It is a practice of being formed in the Way of Jesus and following him in “loving your neighbor as yourself.”
