#reverb 10- Community

December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

Certainly, RevGalBlogPals has provided me with some very special connections and a warm sense of community among clergywomen and friends. I participated in an e-course through Abbey of the Arts this fall, and I think it might have given birth to a new sense of community with the other participants, but it came during the tumultuous fall of 2010, and I didn't avail myself of it.

I've found Twitter to be a great connecting point, 'tho mostly with people with whom I already have a connection. The great exceptions are two amazing resources in Liz McGowen who served as my coach as I was preparing my sabbatical proposal and Heidi Fischbach whose Aardvark Essentials were a wonderful Christmas gift last year.

I have resisted signing up for Facebook, because there's only so much one can keep track of. I feel as though I would constantly suffer from Facebook fail if I signed up, because I don't scrapbook effectively, nor do I take good pictures, nor do I write good Christmas letters and all of those seem to be connected.

Instead, in 2011, I think I'd like to be a better friend IRL and connect with new friends and friends of long-standing. I want to pick up the phone more than I e-mail. I want to write more old-fashioned snail mail letters and notes. I want to meet for lunch or coffee and create and participate in community more deeply in these ways.