This month, we’ve been talking about community here on my blog. It actually ended up more of a journal-reflection type series than informational or practical. My hope is that you will find some of the reflection questions at the end of the post helpful. This post will focus on wrapping up this discussion and sharing about a few other communities where I can encourage others as well as receive encouragement, inspiration, motivation, new knowledge, accountability, love, prayers, and so much more.
Hello Mornings
I shared briefly about Hello Mornings (affiliate link) in The Accountability Community post and also in other various posts on this blog. For the past decade+, I’ve had the honor of watching this ministry be stretched, change, and grow as God leads. It has been lots of different things for very many people around the world. What hasn’t changed is that the heart of Hello Mornings has been to help women build grace-filled, life-giving morning routines.
It continues to be a constant that helps me to start each new day that He has given me in a peaceful and purposeful way so that I can show up wherever He calls me. Peaceful, not necessarily in a quiet way, but that there is a calm in my heart to know I can face the day through God’s strength even when nothing is in my control. Purposeful, not in a checklist kind of way, but that I seek Him and prayerfully discern what’s next. (Obviously, it’s more than that, but I already can’t contain my words on the screen. Another post for another day…) I have stayed connected with many of the members of the founding groups. A number of Hello Mornings friends are also in other communities with me.
ALIVE
A few years ago, my friend Stephanie took a leap of faith to start some community work with co-founder Rebecca. If you are in the nonprofit world, work in education, have started an organization or business, or do work related to people living in unstable situations, you can testify to how much faith and hard work goes into just starting. Then imagine a situation where all of those things are involved. This is why the people and services we need the most are the ones that are oftentimes underfunded and understaffed. It. is. hard.
Without direct experience beyond years of volunteering here and there, I didn’t actually know how much hard work was involved. I donated as I was able in kind and financially whenever Stephanie shared what she was up to. It wasn’t until she invited me into the work as the world was “shut down” during the pandemic that I started to understand. She was finishing up the year with the students. They weren’t even able to fully celebrate the growth that each one had made that school year.
It was the best but also most challenging time to show up for students who might have been missed otherwise. We had a great turnout of support for the backpack drive although our packing event was limited due to restrictions. At the beginning of 2021, I was invited to be on the board of directors. I honestly didn’t know what I could contribute to an amazing group of women who do big things. I’m still learning but thankful for the small part I’m able to play in this huge vision for the San Francisco East Bay for our students experiencing housing instability, foster care, undocumented status, domestic violence, and a loved one who is incarcerated.
Online
I’ve mentioned online groups as well as online friends through various blogs and groups in other posts. In “real life,” I always feel silly or weird for mentioning online-type communities because most people I know don’t do social media stuff (like I mentioned in the Friends post). I think they assume I’m talking about influencer-type connections. So I usually just don’t mention online stuff in real life.
But I can’t dismiss that some of the best people I know are humans of the interweb world. When things get “bad” online, I choose to stay because I know there are good people out there doing the work of shining a light in a dark place. And if they are the only ones carrying a message, whether it’s good news or the Good News, I want to be there to support them.
It’s also okay to take a break from social too. I hope we are all able to recognize what our mental capacity for media input is so we can pause before we’re overwhelmed. There can be some heavy things out there to deal with, especially lately. I’ve hosted gatherings for online groups and have had “strangers” over to our home. I’ve had online friends and friends of online friends I have met in real life too. Because “Connectedness” is one of my strengths, I love when I find out someone I know online has connections to someone I know in real life. One Hello Mornings member doing ministry work in Bosnia(?) hosted our homeschooling friends in their home the previous summer before I “met” her when I was working on some HM stories.
Facebook Groups
I “killed” my Facebook newsfeed a few years ago. What does that mean? It means I just a browser extension to remove the feed of posts on Facebook. It is great to read updates from friends and family but it was also a time suck when I didn’t want to “miss” a single post. This means having to scroll through lots of reposted memes (which are also super fun), duplicate news info that I might have already seen, and lots of meal photos (which I’m guilty of posting at times but not every meal every day).
And when FB changed how we see posts, that made it frustrating to not see the updates from close friends versus people who friended me because they are so-and-so’s cousin I met at a wedding once and we both traveled to the same place for a vacation before…this was before FB had the option to not accept someone’s friend request.
Anyhow, all that to say, Facebook Groups is where I spend most of my time when I’m on the laptop. Things have changed over the years but I love the interactions that have taken place throughout the years on the buy/sell group I facilitate as well as the local community groups like Buy Nothing, Being Neighborly, and other similar groups. They have been a source of giving and kindness to many people.
Photo: Facebook Group Image
If you missed the posts in this “My Community” series, you can find them here:
Where have you found community? What do you love about the people in your community? How did you find this community? If you don’t have a community that “get you”, have you considered starting one to find your people?