The last few days have been a struggle. Sometimes I feel as if aging is nothing more than a
process of letting go of everyone and everything you once enjoyed. And the quality of our lives
depends upon how quickly and gracefully we can mourn losses.

Everything ends. All of it. Whatever it is, it will one day cease to exist. This truth bothered me
less way back when the list was shorter and the road in front of me longer.

I live in a city built around work. Houston’s built for work. To work. The culture here is a project
driven, title driven, ambition driven culture and mostly I’ve appreciated that. I had a counter
culture I cultivated all my own. Fed by my need for and belief in community. And the simple but
essential need of people to JUST BE TOGETHER.

A project team is not a community. A company is not a community. A club is not a community.
A market is not a community.

A community is something elastic that expands to include. Mutuality is built in. Not in a
transactional way. What we give to community does not pass through a weigh station to
determine its market value. We don’t watch a board to make sure we get something of equal
value. We aren’t trading, in community, we’re gifting.

Of all the things passing away I see that the structures that served as containers for community
are dissolving quickly.

I also see younger people struggling and working hard to recreate their own version of what
was. Building slowly and inclusively around the loosest forms of invitation and commonality so
that everyone might sit in the circle. And quietly belong. Be guaranteed a welcome.

Whether it’s game nights, or sewing circles, or group crochet – these small simple places matter.
Everything meaningful grows from these small and simple gatherings. I watch young people
recreate the content neutral spaces of togetherness and cheer them on.