We Are Coastland Commons

As human beings, we ache for story. One story. A story that helps us to connect this minute to the last one, and to the one before that. Like a tightly woven rope, these moments join together through time infusing it with questions and meaning. Sometimes we call it a narrative. Storytellers call it an arc. It is the idea that even in empty space, a line emerges that births shape and form out of chaos.

Beauty assumes that this form exists – somewhere and somehow. It seeks to notice it, to reflect it, and sometimes to just even see it. Other times this beauty resists it, because it feels as though the empty space seems to be all there is - that the arc we strain to see is nothing but a deviation. We wonder if there’s any connection at all.

For people of the Book, the arc that binds us is the Scripture story. Like a great dome, this arc of Scripture gives us plenty of room to dwell. We access it in different ways, we see it differently, and it lives a unique life within each of us. We celebrate it.

We know that is why we need one another. Quite literally, we cannot know this story alone. It is through the senses of a very different body from our own that the story of Scripture grows in depth and dimension.

So that’s what this is about. It’s about creating a place to share what we see. It’s about giving priority to the work of human beings telling and sharing their stories in the way they see fit. It’s the beginning of a very new and very old conversation. It’s about the common work of being human. It's about reclaiming an ancient narrative that has strength and tenacity in an age where humanity is institutionalized and categorized.

We are Coastland Commons. We are local to the Pacific Northwest.

We seek out new perspectives. We believe art and beauty should be common and should happen in community.

We are a community of artists, musicians, pastors, poets, and storytellers.

We value the perspectives of common people in common places.

No one owns the human story. We share it, or we don’t have it at all.