Connecting

A wonderful online (and global) class had a webinar today — with just 8 of us. Amazing to talk to folks around the world and see their faces.

Our facilitator, in Ireland, asked us, what sustains us, today.

I came back to nature and community. I celebrate what I see everyday out in my walks, hikes, or even driving around and enjoying the view in our mountain town.

But I also reflected on the community that my various online groups have meant, as have our experiences around exchanging our house with others from near and far.

It’s all about trust, building community, and reaching out.

I’ve been spending more time volunteering recently with YMCA Healthy Living Pantry distributions in my mountain town. We’re a huge tourist destination, but also an area, in Western North Carolina, that has significant food insecurity issues. It’s a good thing to help.

I had no real understanding about these issues before we bought our house in Asheville.

In the Upstate of SC, where we lived before, there were community pantries, which we gave to; here in Asheville, we have food insecurity, as well as a much more obvious homeless population. It’s impossible not to notice.

I volunteer in a community garden in a historical African-American part of Asheville. Our harvests go to a by-donation kitchen that’s in a community center next door.

Is this a good thing?  Well, of course, I feel good, although I’m a better teacher than market gardener. The connection of sharing food, grown and harvested in community, is truly a sustaining activity.

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