Community is a shared playlist
Community is singing together
dancing together
laughing together
Community is inside jokes
is knowing how to invite people into an inside joke
Community is inviting people in
Community is time in the company of people that I love and know are with me
Community is knowing there are people that are with me even if I haven’t talked with them in months
Community is knowing there are people that are with me even if I haven’t seen them in years
Community is knowing there are people that are with me even if I haven’t met them yet
Community is a practice of love
a practice of joy
Community is a practice of disagreement
of accountability
Community is blowing up fifty balloons at one o’clock in the morning to surprise and celebrate a friend
Community is staying up until two o’clock in the morning rigging those balloons so that they will fall from the ceiling when that friend opens the door of their room
Community is getting up at seven o’clock in the morning to film that friend opening that door and walking into a hallway full of balloons and friends
Community is sitting by a fire with people I know, love, and disagree with
Community is engaging in our disagreement with love
Community is speaking my truth and listening to theirs
Community is searching for the common values that bring us together
Community is dissecting the experiences and beliefs that led us to see things differently
Community is loving people that I don’t agree with
Community is not trying to change them
Community is holding them accountable when I think they are wrong
Community is being held accountable when I am wrong
Community is calling the people I love towards the better versions of themselves
Community is allowing myself to be called towards the better versions of myself
Community is holding people I love in their grief
Community is allowing myself to be held in mine
Community is witnessing people while they become undone
Community is allowing my becoming undone to be witnessed
In community we love and disagree with each other
In community we choose curiosity and release righteousness
In community we hear each others’ truths and hold each other accountable to the truths that we know
In community we grieve and celebrate together
…often at the same time