Remember dot to dots? Especially the ones with 15 or less dots that made it easy to see the image that would be produced once the dots were connected with your No. 2 lead pencil? Then came the more advance dot to dots, you know, the ones with numbers significant enough that you couldn’t visualize what the final picture would be until a majority of the connections were made correctly.

Community wellness could be compared with a dot to dot image, drawing a line between independent marks (people/organizations), making connections over time, to create a picture of what wholeness and health can look and feel like in a community. As this community engagement experiment called Mower Refreshed continues to evolve, we are learning how the individual dot to dot is as important as the organizational ones. Sure, it makes for more slow progress but it creates sustained commitment to the cause: engaging, equipping, and empowering people to live well, even when the direct line of volunteering fades a little.

The wide range of volunteers that fuel the work coming out Mower Refreshed teams and our collaborating partners come and go as life commitments allows, each leaving their line, that may fade but doesn’t erase, a line that connected two dots, which then connected to other dots, that will connect the countless dots yet to come. We don’t see the complete picture yet but the growing numbers of dots being connected reveal hope in this complex opportunity to grow healthy individuals, organizations, and communities.

Our community dot to dot is not one dimension, its multi-dimensional which means multiple approaches, solutions, and people are needed. If wellness is a personal passion of yours consider how you might engage with one of the four Mower Refreshed teams to develop ideas and expand promising efforts.

Explore what we are about at www.MowerRefreshed.org and contact us a www.connect@MowerRefreshed.org or 507-434-1039 to match your passion to team efforts. There’s always room at our table!

Wellness Wednesday tip

Make your summer outdoor fun healthy… keep sunscreen and water close by, apply, sip, and repeat often!

Refreshed recipe

Double Crusted Apple Pie: www.myrecipes.com/recipe/double-crusted-apple-pie