Community Over Everything
By Kimberly Seals
Now more than ever, communal support is integral to our survival. While many of us have been in isolation over the past year, it is important to remember the importance and power of our neighbors, friends, and everyone else who makes up our communities.
We Need Community
These first months of 2021 have shown how much we really need each other. As much as individualism is promoted, we simply do not live inside a vacuum between just ourselves or our immediate relationships. Many of the decisions that we have had to make this year, deeply extend into the overall well being of our community.
We all need to seriously consider how our actions, or lack thereof, will affect our communities. We owe it to ourselves to cultivate a culture of safety and comfort.
How to Foster Community
If you are able to, contributing to local mutual aid funds and crowdfunding efforts is an excellent way to support your community.
However, material support is not the only, or necessarily best, way to support your community. As many of us are going through some of the hardest times of our life thus far, simply extending compassion and understanding can go a long way in fostering community.
A Brighter Future
One of the best ways to combat a system that disregards its people is to care for each other. Every single system that we have is made up of people and the communities we form. Ask yourself what you can do to make your community a more empathetic, caring, and understanding space; because change starts in our minds and hearts.
