Community

Tonight we attended the community Thanksgiving meal at the local brewery, which has become something of a community center, with regular activities like Sip n Paint and game night and the site for occasional special events. 

Elsewhere in the community, two nights ago, the community choir met to work on a Christmas cantata.  Ten days ago, 23 people gathered for a program called Community Connect, special sessions periodically offered locally by the Community Congregational Church.  At a time when loneliness is being reported as epidemic in America and elsewhere, community events, participation, and spirit seem essential.

“We need to return to an idea that was central to our founding and is at the heart of many great religious traditions: We have commitments to ourselves, but we also have vital commitments to each other, including to those who are vulnerable,” wrote the authors of “Loneliness in America,” as reported in the February 2021 edition of Making Caring Common of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This same study stated that about half of lonely young adults in their survey reported that no one in the past few weeks had “taken more than just a few minutes” to ask how they are doing in a way that made them feel like the person “genuinely cared.”

There is much in the world that we cannot directly impact.  But we have no excuse for not taking time to do even the smallest things that convey we genuinely care

I heard a sweet story in the hair salon last week.  A young woman described their Christmas traditions with their children.  They allow the children to open their gifts the day before Christmas Eve because they have extended family they are with on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  But after the children open their gifts they go “elfing,” a term I had not heard before.  They leave gifts anonymously at various homes of folks they know or people they have learned have some need.  The lesson for her children I would think is that the gifts they receive are secondary to the pleasure of giving. That is also one demonstration of a way to build a sense of community in one’s children.

I told my husband about this and we have been discussing how we might include “elfing” in our Christmas this year.  We don’t have to limit community building to this season of goodwill but it is an excellent time to start.

 May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate “

Hope’s Café Bonus: “ One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.”— Shannon L. Adler