We have always been a family of movers. I don't like to vacation, but I love to move. In our daughters life we have lived in 10 homes and 7 cities. This is not, at least before the age of social networking, the way to build community.
#Reverb10 Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
This year I made an effort to rebuild some of my communities that I had let go of. Previously I had been in a nesting, quiet, home bound stage and not focused outward. I know, though, that community is where we grow and taking the risk to dive deeper into it was a goal of my 40/40 List.
I reconnected with my Laughing Ladies Book Club. This group is full of some of the brightest, boldest, and boundless women in Carroll County. They cross generations, friendship lines, and life paths to smash together in the most lovely group of women I know. Rejoining them was the most wonderful part of deciding to rejoin community. They are wholly accepting, challenging, and loving all at once - and they read!
My UU Church family is a place I had not been in a few years. After our daughter left for college I just couldn't see giving up my gracefully quiet Sundays in favor of theist, political, or intellectual conversation, but in 2010 I reconnected. Being UU is my ground - it is where I come from - and giving it up hurts my heart, even though they frustrate me more often then not. So, I came back to church. It was not an easy return, my feelings were crushed, I retreated again in October and am not sure where I want to be with it. Granted, it is still my foundation, but it is a constant challenge to my soul and spirit - they are just human, after all.
My hippie heart was a place I never thought I would reconnect. One of those 10 homes that we lived in was at East Wind, an intentional community in Missouri, and this year one of our friends there was married in Springfield, MO. So, my daughter and I went up for the day and had the most wonderful reconnection with friends that we had lived so closely with for a year. Friends who are living back in the world and some still at EW. It was like a reunion of souls who have wondered far and near. We are all now on Facebook and reconnecting with them has been something I cherish - they were with me during a leap of faith we had made as a family and the realization that we had to leap back and they are still with me in my heart.
For 2011 - so many things cross my mind. Recommitting to girlfriend time with new and old friends, reconnecting with long lost family, diving deeper into my work relationships, building new relationships online - the possibilities flow. I am not certain what direction I will make, but with Balance as my 2011 word I am hoping to keep a little bit of my nest and fly a little, too.
Photo Credit: The Stone Wedding, Steph & Thebes
