Eighteen days into the new year, I am thinking about community, specifically how do we maintain it? How do we ensure that the relationships that are the bedrock of our lives are symbiotic in nature?
How do we determine what relationships are no longer nurturing, but instead debilitating? How do we know what needs to die away and what merely needs to be infused with more nurturing?
These questions could have led me down a rabbit hole, but instead I took a long hard look toward the sky, at the trees. Trees are communal, just like humans.
Trees have an elaborate network of communication which includes warnings of impending danger. Trees are remarkably resilient, they bend, lose their leaves, and topple over to provide nutrients to others.
And, just like trees, we humans bend, go with the flow, age, and eventually transform into nutrients for the earth.
Community comes in many different forms, through family, friends, online social networks, and work. However, not all these communities are built equally and not all these relationships provide the sustenance necessary to thrive.
Online social communities can provide a sounding board, a safe place for the exchange of ideas and information. They can remove the barriers of distance and timidity.
However, they can also provide a haven for the ill intended, pushing the vulnerable close and sometimes over the edge.
The Pear Tree Project is here to promote healing. To assist those seeking to remove the negativity of social platforms from their already intensely anxious lives. Please help us share this mission.
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