remove two apartment that was about three blocks north of here we spent our first six months living there we had gone on a bit of a road trip in the meantime down to mexico and had some time to kind of rethink where we're at or into during that trip when we decided that we really wanted to we had some friends who would who had started this church in the neighborhood and just a really neighborhood focused church community sent to a space that felt more fitting for our who we are and we removed in to this to this home and there was we had this big backyard that was pretty jumped up when we first moved there we decided to like how fun would that be to have a garden back there so we had lunch with friends kind of got in on it with us and we decided to in our church community actually did as well and decided to make this garden together and we kind of knew what the feel of some of the population here is here and that it's a very transience kind of culture that a lot of people are living in motels or in their cars and things like that and we were we wanted to kind of have some sort of a connection to our neighbors and to know the people that we live nearby but it's kind of an awkward i mean you can't it's like oh like banging on someone's van door or knock on their hotel room it was really neat the way this garden kind of came to be it became a place where we were it was really easy for us to invite people to come over and hang out in the garden and then we end up having like these regular barbecues back there and just it just became  a really safe kind of neutral place for people to meet and be together and and and to begin seeing this whatever this thing that's that i see happening at the commons this is really formed around is this this vision that we started having back there or this this whatever this kind of thing that we started catching on to you back there which is unexplainable but it really really has something to do with its feels like another world when you're when you're kind of in this in this space that we started we started experiencing just the way neighbors came together was  something that just you just thinking different like you don't you see each other in different ways and we were like if you step back you might realize that wow there's like a homeless person talking to  businessman you know things like that and like as if they're as if they're like neighbors they actually like recognize each other's neighbors and we sort of see that that was actually happening but the thing that's not really explainable is just how when it's actually happening you're not aware of it and it just really natural and fluid and something that we felt like we were all just kind of like catching on to you and and and experiencing together it wasn't something that was contrived it wasn't something that we sat around and were like hey let's you know start this program that's going to be it's going to get neighbors interacting with each other you know is all we don't just want to know each other and we all started being together in these spaces and and so that to me i mean from my perspective like this this garden experience was it was a really beautiful for all of us for everyone that was part of it whether it was my wife and i as it's our backyard i'm going to look out and see all these people hanging out or or there's gardening growing up or whether it's you know people who there was a member the first summer there was a guy who was in town for a while that just and healthy sustain he pitched a tent back there for a couple weeks and just was just really and he and then he participated he made the sign for the community you know aurora communal garden and i feel like what's happening at the commons here is is in my mind and the sort of my my getting behind it and wanting to be participating in it and the part that i've been most excited about is that it just feels like an extension of that experience an extension of the card and it's sort of i mean when it rains like rita hang out in the summer but then it rains and we can always be there and we can always having these barbecues and so to have this space here it just feels like we can now and we can we can kind of have a neutral space where we're bumping into each other and and people and people are all kind of taking ownership of it together and i've always thought you know love your neighbor you know i'm part of a church that's what we're supposed to do so what that means is kind of become a lot more real in my mind but one thing that's been really fascinating about my time here is to start calling this a neighborhood is this kind of counterintuitive to a lot of people which is even that that that experience itself has been really powerful if you're if you're buying real estate if you're if you're looking in the market there there's nothing that says here's a house for sale in a rora you know no one's going to say that so so there's this divide and then the closer you get to a roar as more of this the way it seems like there's less and less of an identity that in my own mind i started to experience it more and more like when you start to name this this little area as a neighborhood it actually is becoming that and it's becoming like it's kind of has its own identity and it has its own demographic and it has its own way of that people relate to one another and and it's really beautiful the it feels like there's a sense of freedom in this little area that for neighbors to kind of be  like relate to one another a lot more than what you generally see in seattle what a blessing to be to be part of that and i think that's helpful for my neighbors too who who live here and to actually stay feel like they have a home like even if they're maybe would be considered homeless like they actually have a location that is kind of central the who they are and what they are how they live and i think i could've told you that community is good and you know th sure getting the space was was really as you know even that was a bit of it took some conniving and some we were we were we saw you know we saw this place was for and then had to do some work just to get ourselves on a lease here and then we didn't have a budget to feel at home and just comfortable in a space and that's important to us and it wasn't that way when we got the space so it was it was definitely a given that we were going to be doing some work on it and we didn't have i mean we're a sock we could like hire a contracting crew to come and do it and so it's been it's been very challenging to to do a like drop plans if we hadn't had him as part of you know i just even dream it you know even john's knowledge and and abilities and that's been just crucial to to having this project happen then but that i mean just that the volume of volunteers that have been just awesome for getting the for just doing the work and the grunt work and crappy work like tearing out the ceiling and tearing up the floor and putting up drywall and it's just you know it's just been it's not all glamour you know the last bit of it has been great but a lot of the work is just people willing to come and be together as a human that has been like a lesson in community too because what i mean you say we'd say oh you know if anybody wants to do work we can give you some ideas of projects you can go in and get them done and nobody ever does that but we'd say you know like you're on your own time feel free to we'll give you keys and get in and go do some work we have these days these volunteer days that we'd kind of say ok this saturday's going to be a work party in the commons and karen would kind of set it all off to get the word out and then like people would tons of people would show up and those that show because we're all like working together and listening to music and eating pizza and working a little bit and   a place like that and so and there are communities imagination it's just it's really really grown i think through this experience a lot of the old timers the people who have been part of this neighborhood a lot longer than i have and i'm seeing kind of this group of young like you know energetic people come in and make a space in the neighborhood you know and be like we're going to you know maybe it's kind of that savior mentality savior kind of figure thing comes comes to mind and of course that's met with skepticism for good reason by people who have been around for a long time and we definitely got our fair share of kind of skeptic skeptical words in looks and that was throughout the course of the project and it was really neat to see so i mean there was definitely stages where people were kind of like what you guys doing like this is kind of a joke like this place has been through this place we're in has been through so many different kind of owners and remodels and you name it to watch our neighbors who were at first very skeptical of the work kind of have this transition as they started to see the beauty of it and started to see it come together and then and then to go from that to not just not just being ok with it but actually like joining it people who are not even really interested in seen this place seen anything happen here were suddenly like volunteering their time to work on it and are spending a lot of like every day ten you know here and love it there's just there's this there's kind of this i wish i knew what to call it and just kind of this world this like secondary world things kind of thing that people get a glimpse of and then we kind of feel like a lot of it is just like we make little portals for people that get in talking and you know like you got to enter into the secondary world somehow or and we make a little portals for it and that's that's really i feel like all we're doing like that's the only maybe maybe if there is like one thing that kind of are the more core group of people that are working on this are doing is just trying to make these little portals for this world that we've experienced and that we know already exists and help people find ways to enter into that through creating th just just depending on the audience and and who you are that that's watching this video hurting people in our neighborhood and in broken people there are in yours too wherever that  is and really i just i have no doubt that the most important thing for healing is for people to have healthy relationships interactions with with with others and that goes for just us for all of us but especially for people who are down and out and are maybe maybe struggling at a place of struggling like just that myth that that you can create your own redemption or healing is just not i just it's just it's a lie like people need each other to heal it just doesn't happen in isolation and they need a lot of times people are are past the point where they can they can create those relationships on their own and they might need a bit of a boost from people who are maybe in a healthier place i have been in seattle about a year and a half i've been working with the over our comments for a little over six months now i originally was volunteering with their community garden and have gotten more involved  monastery program coordinator after that and i've just really enjoyed being part of the community here the aura commons serves as a neighborhood living room it's a place where you are welcome to come and to be and to share space and conversation and relationship regardless of what your story is it's a place to share story and to be who you are and where you're at  don't sell anything you can't buy anything here and that is one of the most powerful ways that we have just been able to kind of subvert some of the themes that we  say see in day to day life is that you have to earn your right to be somewhere by purchasing something or where looking a certain way or talking a certain way or viewing life through a certain way and we're really challenging a lot of those norms by inviting anyone and everyone to come be here and to share life and to share space and to share the fullness of relationship and conversation  and that's a really refreshing and incredible thing to see the rich and the poor sharing coffee and sharing conversation and having friendship with one another and you can't you can't tell by people's smile and by their story necessarily where they've been or where they're going and that's a great thing to just see the overlap there and realize know any given moment here in this phase you can be you can be with with a refugee family or a church family or a homeowner business person or someone who lives in their van and each person is equally welcome and equally you love i recently finished master's program in sustainable  communities and for that program i was looking at the inner discipline there aspects of what makes a community sustainable not only environmentally but sociologically as well and found that i think the strongest influences when governmental services green spaces and nurturing community of support and spirituality are combined in and more holistic network for people and that that is what we do here if you are a common so it's a real life application of what seemed like a very ambiguous degree i think for me looking at what makes something a sustainable community it does need to be holistic it needs to be created by the people or the people and being close of story and be inclusive of beauty and be inclusive of one's spirituality and practices as well as movements and recognizing the dignity and the beauty in each person and they get that each person has to offer back to the community and and help helping to invite each person to use their gifts in the community for the community is one of one of the most important aspects of creating a good and sustainable place for us to do life together and we've been really fortunate to have jackie moulton who's a local artist come teach free classes for members in the community each week the instructor picks a different motion that we explore through water color or finger painting or sculpture and just some of the conversations and  pieces have been incredible and such a beautiful look at different people's experiences and takes on themselves and watching how how many of us share those emotions and we all express them with with different colors and different techniques but we also have that the rather than common that we're all just using the same materials to express to express ourselves and to and to share with others those things that are sometimes beyond words one artist talked about how it all of the words and phrases and experiences in her life sometimes went through her head like she was watching them through a window and if each raindrop had a different color what that would look like as it went down the window and left that mark upon upon her lens in which she looks looks at the world through and so there are just really great classes and good good themes i think it's been an incredible way to share story and share the human condition