Communions with community
Dear Friends,
The Corona virus pandemic and all the social isolation that has ensued just underlines what was already true: we are becoming a modern society of isolated households, left to stew in the social ills that lonely humans fall into. Humans don’t really live well, without regular and meaningful connections to other humans, as well as to nature and to an experience of the cosmos. Despite all the pains in the rear of dealing with anyone else, ever, especially over years and years of habit and wear, I have come to see that I really do need others to be there with me, and that they really do need me to be there with them.
The time has come to break out of this modern loneliness dilemma and start banding together again. We need to find our tribe - or create it with the other humans we find around us. Community has given me, personally, the push to develop in ways that repeatedly serve:
- to hold respond-ability
- to be more tolerant
- to be more humble
- to hold more love
- to process grief
- to learn to listen to my own voice
- to lead, to teach, to share
- to follow, to mentor, to self-reflect
- to nurture and be nurtured
As a white person of mixed cultural descent - basically inheriting a big bagful of defunct and meaningless traditions - I am so very lucky to have an experience of alive, reciprocal community in my life… I encourage us all to consider trading in a some of our independence, our rights to privacy and autonomy, our nuclear family limitations, for more communal and community-building activities. The richness of community is palpable. Whether its through sharing rides, sharing food, sharing kid-care, sharing finances, sharing dreams, sharing circles, sharing housing, sharing stories, sharing sorrows, or sharing our expertise, we can all get more experience of connection into our daily lives. The benefits of connection flow into all sides of our life: our health, our resilience and strength, our love and intimacies, our creativity and passion, our families, even our relationship to our past traumas and access to our visionary spirit.
I personally have so much gratitude for being a part of a small eco peer support community. This has literally saved my life; it brings the potential (if not the guarantee) of every day richness and emotional nurturance; it brings the safety of financial and home support; it brings so many different people’s talents and strengths into my life - from knitting to engineering to therapy to art. Community has allowed for my partner Ted and I to survive, and deepen, as an alive marriage over many years of up and down love life, mental health crisis, and given us the regular opportunity to share simple joys more deeply, including emotional and physical support in raising our children. It has given my family the incredible grounding of financial security. This has meant so much.
So, here’s a song to celebrate the bigger family of community, and to inspire you to go out and invest in one!
In solidarity,
Eliza
- The Longhouse COMMUNITY CENTER -