Our abundance grows when we turn to one another. It’s a simple but profound truth I’ve seen play out time and again in communities. This isn’t about material wealth, but a richer kind of prosperity built on connection. When we stop facing away and start facing each other, that’s when the real magic happens.
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Meaning
At its heart, this quote means that our collective wealth—not just money, but skills, joy, support, and resilience—expands exponentially through cooperation and relationship, and it withers in isolation.
Explanation
Let me break this down for you. We’re trained to think of abundance as something we acquire individually. A bigger paycheck, a newer car. But McKnight and Block flip that entirely. They argue that the most powerful, sustainable form of abundance is already present in our communities, just waiting to be unlocked. It’s the mechanic down the street, the retired teacher who can tutor kids, the neighbor with a great recipe. When we “turn to one another,” we activate these dormant assets. We stop being passive consumers of services and start being active co-creators of our own well-being. The real resource is each other.
Quote Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Original Language | English (4111) |
| Category | Spiritual (256) |
| Topics | connection (286), gratitude (73), unity (22) |
| Literary Style | minimalist (508), poetic (719) |
| Emotion / Mood | peaceful (158), uplifting (177) |
| Overall Quote Score | 81 (267) |
Origin & Factcheck
This is straight from the 2010 book The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods by community organizers John McKnight and Peter Block. You sometimes see this sentiment floating around unattributed, but its true home is in their work on asset-based community development, which originated from their work primarily in the United States.
Attribution Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Author | John McKnight (51) |
| Source Type | Book (4637) |
| Source/Book Name | The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods (51) |
| Origin Timeperiod | 21st Century (1995) |
| Original Language | English (4111) |
| Authenticity | Verified (4637) |
Author Bio
John McKnight, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University had spent decades of his life helping people rediscover the power of relationships. Being, co-founder of the ABCD Institute, his core idea revolves around communities that grows by identifying and connecting their assets. You’ll find the John McKnight book list here which are anchored by Building Communities from the Inside Out, The Careless Society, The Abundant Community, and The Connected Community.
| Official Website
Where is this quotation located?
| Quotation | Our abundance grows when we turn to one another instead of away |
| Book Details | Publication Year/Date: 2010; ISBN/Unique Identifier: 9781605095844; Last edition: 2012; Number of pages: 192. |
| Where is it? | Chapter: Turning to Each Other, Approximate page from 2012 edition: 115 |