You & Your Community
Belonging, connection, and returning to the whole
Sometimes self-love asks us to step back long enough to tend to our own lives again.
That is what this past season has been for me. I paused this series while moving through some important personal and family transitions, including moving and selling my home. There was a lot to hold — family, change, uncertainty, endings, beginnings, and the emotions of letting go.
At the time, I thought I was simply taking a break from the series. But now, as I return, I can see that the pause was part of the teaching.
We are returning with Community — the relationship that reminds us that even when we need time alone, even when life calls us inward, we are never meant to live separate from the whole.
This series was inspired by the teachings in Love, Service, Wisdom – The Ancient Inka Path to Inner Harmony by Jorge Luis Delgado. I highly recommend this book, which continues to inspire my own perspective on healing, connection, and what it means to live with greater love, service, and wisdom.
So… welcome back.
This week, we turn toward our relationship with Community.
When we hear the word community, many of us think about our neighbors, our workplace, or the people we see regularly in our daily lives.
But in the worldview that inspires this series, community is much bigger than that.
Community includes the people who live near us and people in other cities and countries — the larger human family. It also includes the living world around us: plants, animals, mountains, bodies of water, and the natural rhythms that support life.
In this understanding, we are never separate. We belong to something much larger than ourselves.
And yet, many of us don’t feel that sense of belonging.
In modern life, it’s easy to move through the world disconnected. We wave at neighbors from across the street, rush through our days, scroll, text, and notice the world without truly engaging with it.
What we are experiencing is an absence of connection.
And even when we don’t consciously recognize it, that absence often carries a loneliness that lives in the place where connection is meant to be.
I’ve felt this myself at different points in my life.
There have been times when I was busy, productive, “doing fine” on the outside — but disconnected on the inside. I was moving through the world efficiently, but not relationally. I was surrounded by people, yet not truly feeling seen or known.
What I’ve learned is that healing our relationship with community takes effort and engagement, it doesn’t just happen. It begins by:
Slowing down and paying attention.
Showing up and engaging with community - in-person ideally.
Being willing to receive as well as give.
Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, reaching out, and saying yes.
It can start off very small and simple like making eye contact and saying hello and taking your time and not rushing through experiences. One way I like to do this is by noticing the trees, the birds, the land beneath our feet — and letting ourselves feel connected to them.
It can feel strange at first.
The old stories can creep back in: self-doubt and fear of rejection. And — when you move through these feelings and allow a genuine connection, it’s so worth it.
Because community is built on vulnerability, presence, showing up, and allowing others to show up for you.
As you relationship with your community begins to improve, life shifts.
We feel a sense of belonging, we feel loved, and we feel seen.
These feelings come from within, as we feel connected and part of the whole.
A reflection for this week:
Where in my life do I feel disconnected from community?
In what small ways have I been neglecting connection — with people, nature, or place?
What is one step I could take toward stepping into community this week?
This was Week Four of this seven-part exploration of the relationships that shape how we move through the world.
In the past three weeks, we explored our relationship with the Mother, the Father, and Family — looking at nurturing, self-worth, confidence, self-trust, forgiveness, and lineage.
This exploration is part of the larger journey I guide with my co-facilitator, Jayne Jacova Feld of Jayne Says — through my offerings around self-love, acceptance, and speaking our truth, including The Art of Putting Yourself First, and the deeper work of voice, truth, and connection we explore in The Art of Standing in Your Truth.
Next week, we’ll explore our relationship with the Past — and calibrating how unfinished stories shape who we are today.
Until then, may you notice one place where connection is waiting for you — and allow yourself to step toward it.
I agree and commend Tina on her insights about the human condition and need for Community!