Community

 

What does community mean to you? Is community your neighborhood? 

Your city? Your valley? Your country?

This was strange to see in 2022,
 but understandable during Covid
(At a doctor's lab)

 A community is a group of people with common interests living in a particular area.  A community can be small, such as a nursing home, a nudist colony or a monastery. People who enjoy sunshine, might consider Florida their community, while people of faith, might gather in a community church. New York and other giant cities have ethnic communities, such as Little Italy. Los Angeles has Little Tokyo, and San Francisco has Chinatown.... These places still exist, but the diverse population has expanded so much, that residents had to move to the suburbs where they created new, inclusive communities welcoming everyone.

Still, the world struggles, but is striving to become one giant community.

Which is why we identify with Ukrainians during a war. This is why we pray for world peace. It is why the local homeless population fills us with concern, and also the reason we know that all lives matter.

Our intangible hearts find community with other hearts. All hearts are the same blood-red color. We are bound together as humans who empathize with other humans. In church they call that The Body of Christ. It’s when the members of a community beat together with one compassionate heartbeat. A community of love.

Recently, a publisher in Canada decided to put together an anthology titled, Community, which is filled with poetry examining all the angles and perspectives of the word, and what community means to each writer. My little poem about a community center is included, but it’s also packed with much more!

Every mayor of every town, every teacher, every religious leader, every governor, every Prime Minister, and every President, should read this book to understand what community means to the creative souls who have shared their deepest thoughts about the heart of community.