Community orbs 🌕🌑
on connection, belonging + interbeingness
Community has been top of mind for me lately. Gathering and connecting with people is one of my gifts and greatest joys. It’s also one of my deepest needs.
Most (all?) humans need connection ~ introverts and solitude lovers included.
This summer, I am actively cultivating communities that are essential and dear to me. I am also committed to seeing clearly the communities I’m already held in. This seeing and sensing my place in community has been a deep shift. Even while among people and community, there can be feelings of separateness or not-enoughness. Throw on top of that a pandemic, physical isolation, mental health chaos, and the rampant loneliness of dominant culture, and ya got a recipe for some very unpleasant and lonely feelings.
So what is community? Who do I belong to?
my family, extended family, neighborhood, my tai chi class, contact improv community, the nuns I work with, friend constellations, grandpa’s senior apartment, the podcast I listen to, my yoga home studio…
An image came to mind. This a quick mockup - it’s not complete nor drawn to scale, but it captures the essence of what I’m feeling.
Community is to be cultivated, not controlled. Community is dynamic, not stagnant. I believe each of us exists in community whether we’re aware of it or not. I believe there is magic in recognizing what we need and shifting/shaping/cultivating the communities we need. I believe we do this together.
I made this second diagram as a reminder to myself when I’m feeling separate - this is a red flag, a sign that I’ve psychically isolated myself, a fallacy that contradicts our inherent interconnectedness. It might be true that a community needs tending to, that I need help, or maybe some community isn’t a good fit right now. But totally separate and alone? nope, not true.
This all feels like practice in naming “my place in the family of things” as Mary Oliver writes. We belong to the earth, to the forest next to your home, to the people we are surrounded by - known and loved, strangers and birds.
We need community tenders and cultivators. There are gaps in care and connection - for our basic human needs and the deeper emotional and spiritual longings.
How do you define community?
What does it feel like?
Is there community that you’re longing for or actively cultivating right now?
What might a world of overlapping community orbs 🌕🌑 feel like?
Speaking on community ~ Thank you for your presence here IN DEEP SHIFT with me! It’s been 6 months since I launched this outlet to connect through ideas bubbling up in my body brain. I would be talking to myself a lot more if it wasn’t for you and this space to share what’s on my heart.
I look forward to what the rest of this year and beyond brings. 🌱
For those who are local here in Cleveland, I am organizing opportunities for movement, dance, play, and creative expression. If you would like to receive updates about in-person meet-ups and classes, please join this email list.
with gratitude,
emily