Community...

I am struggling still with how to disconnect with social media. I don't want to disconnect from people sharing about their kids, jobs, or how fall is beginning to take shape in the northern hemisphere around them or from several thought provoking devotional and contemplative pages I follow. But, I don't want to be confronted or tempted to engagr with the election and surrounding posts. I am finding them to be triggers for my I own past trauma and history dealing with standing on my own and thinking for myself.

So, I write again today...

This time I am thinking about community.

2020 is a year when everyone of us has to think intentionally about community and how to make it happen.

When I say community,  I mean deep connection with other people. These are people who make you think. Community is people you can rely on. They are the ones who stand with you when everyone else walks away.

Who are those people in your life? Who randomly, for no real reason checks on you and you on them? Who will sit with you in your silence or you with theirs when they have had a bad day?

2020 has helped many of us recognize that there are lonely people, people without community.

They may often be difficult to spot because they may still always have a smile on their face (although masks may hide the smile a bit).  They may be surrounded by people and yet feel entirely alone.

Adults don't have the elementry school playground buddy benches to sit down on when they are lonely. Adults may be good at hiding the lonliness that comes with the lack of community. But, I can guarantee there are lonely people around us everywhere.

Perhaps you are being nudged today to reach out to an acquaintance with whom you could deepen a relationship or a friend whom you haven't connected with in a while,  just to offer to be a buddy to someone who could be very lonely and you didn't know.