People Who Don't Have Strong Communities Will Strong In The Coming Months

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Watch this video, maybe videos.

[00:00:03]Maybe, we'll see. Watch them then we'll talk.

[00:00:05]>> I decided to host a spring market swap with my friends. Here's what everyone brought. I'm Olivia and I made my mom's homemade granola and I made these little spring bouquets for everyone. I'm Madison and I brought a homemade lavender simple syrup and I made wine charms for everyone and I also brought lavender seeds for my garden. I'm Cara and I brought oranges and foaming soap.

[00:00:32]Hey guys, I'm Amanda and I brought blueberry lemon syrup which is now a jam overnight.

[00:00:38]I'm Ali and I crochet coasters. Hi, my name is Amalia and I made a little brown sugar lip scrub. I'm Amanda and I brought the pickled red onions.

[00:00:50]>> [laughter] >> Community is how we survive hard times. Hoarding your resources, not having friends, not having community, not knowing who was around you, not knowing your neighbors, just holding up and saying I can do this on my own is not how we survive hard times.

[00:01:16]Now, there are multiple ways to do versions of this. You could do versions of this within your friend group. You could do versions of this at different clubs or extra-curriculars that you have. Um, depending on the spiritual or religious background you have, a community you have, there's ways that you could do this within that community and at large. For example, I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before.

[00:01:41]My mom is a part of a church where two times a year the church does a massive city-wide Not clothing drive. Um, um, it's like a clothing giveaway. It started off kind of as a clothing swap and then it got so big that like everybody from the church, whether it was like new stuff or old stuff, stuff that they weren't wearing, stuff that they wore one time. Like there was it's all quality controlled, right? Like they're not just allowed to like put in like, I don't know, used underwear from the '90s, right?

[00:02:12]So they bring all of the stuff um for adults, for teenagers, toys for kids. Some people buy things in bulk, like diapers and all of that. And then they set up in a park, and then people from the community come to the park, and kids are able to get clothes for and they set it up like around the the season changing like the big season changes. So like there's one in fall, and then there's one uh in spring, I want to say. So that way kids can kids, people, uh new parents can get what they need for the upcoming season, completely free of charge, and it's a great way for community members to get to know the church members, and for like there's also a play section for the kids that like are don't know that they need these things, so the parents can go and get what they need, and the kids can play with all of the kids that It's really cute, and it's a great way to build community, and it's a great way for people to get the things that they need.

[00:03:05]And this is also a great uh this is also a great way for folks who like not just are a little bit shy or introverted and like uh listen, I'm I understand everybody not everybody's going to be the extrovert to end all extroverts. You need community to survive this. You can survive being a little uncomfortable for a little bit, even if you're like, "Oh, I just don't want to do this." Look at the state of the United States.

[00:03:31]And if you're not in the United States, oh okay, fine. Look at the state of the world.

[00:03:35]Look at it.

[00:03:37]You think you could do this on your own?

[00:03:38]Zombie apocalypse time. Let's everybody likes to think, "Oh, I'd totally be the person to survive on my own as a bomb zombie apocalypse. I've seen all of those white people do it so well in all of those movies." No, they don't good real life. First of all, okay, I understand. There are no real zombies, but also you really think that white people are going to be doing well?

[00:03:59]You really think that?

[00:04:02]They've been eating people for generations. Now, that's besides the point.

[00:04:07]What was my point? Community. There it is. Yes, of course. So, um yeah. Uh with the times rolling the way that they are rolling, now is a great time to And it Listen, you don't have to start off huge. You don't have to start off with doing the most. This can be a neighborhood thing.

[00:04:27]This could be a cul-de-sac thing. This could be a thing between you and your upstairs downstairs neighbor. This could be a thing with you and some of the people from your kid some of the adults from your kids' classroom. This could This can look however it is that it can look for your specific life situation and for whatever community you are adjacent to or in.

[00:04:50]I just think that especially as the price of everything is getting higher, exponentially so depending on where you are in the world, as the political situations are getting tenser and tenser, as more and more people are getting kidnapped and thrown away to places across the United States or across the world, as anti-immigration sentiments are getting higher and higher in ways that still boggle my mind.

[00:05:22]Now is the time to really lock in.

[00:05:27]Build an Build an actual community.

[00:05:32]So, that way when the mayhem knocks on your door, because it will knock on every door eventually, you might not be first, but it's going to come knocking.

[00:05:43]You don't want to be the only person.

[00:05:46]You don't want You don't We don't survive things in isolation.

[00:05:50]Community is how we survive things. And listen, okay, let's say that you're not you're not a baker. You don't know how to You're not a whatever. Sure. Okay, whatever.

[00:06:01]Consider and I recognize, "Oh my gosh, but Shayna, this is so scary. But Shayna, I don't want people in my space.

[00:06:07]I don't want people to know people. What if I What if I This is the cost of community.

[00:06:16]So, just off the top of my head, right?

[00:06:18]Um you don't know how to make things.

[00:06:20]You don't know how to make things, that's fine. You don't know how to bake.

[00:06:23]You're not the greatest cook. It's fine.

[00:06:24]Listen, it happens. Um why not pop on a tele- pop on YouTube and have a workout class?

[00:06:36]Have a workout class. It could be at your apartment. You could do it in the park. You could have a couple of people over. You can learn the workout routine, and all you need is a yoga mat, or maybe not even a yoga mat.

[00:06:48]You go, you do the workout routine in the park, and you invite a couple of your neighbors. "Hey, I've been trying to get into fitness. Summer body ready."

[00:06:56]Whatever you want to do. Does anybody want to join me? Listen, you don't got to pay me and maybe we could get a latte afterwards.

[00:07:03]Start There are ways to do this. And then, okay, that goes really well. "Hey, does anybody want to like I can be in charge of next week if everybody likes it, or if there's something else? Does anybody else want to like give this a shot?"

[00:07:15]There are ways to do this. You can learn a new skill in community.

[00:07:20]You can paint in community. Watercolor. The 99 Cents Store has a whole bunch of those What is it? Eight eight little color swatches that everybody used when we were in kindergarten?

[00:07:33]Grab a couple of those. See what happens. I don't know. Give things a try. Because community doesn't have to be hard. It is is for survival. We are communal. Most mammals are con- Most mammals a lot of mammals.

[00:07:48]There are a lot of mammals that live in the wilderness.

[00:07:51]I don't know. We are communal creatures, though.

[00:07:55]Primates, definitely communal creatures.

[00:07:57]So, if you want to workshop any ways that you, your family, your friends can maybe figure out ways to either deepen that commune that sense of community, that feeling of community, that reality of community to gain new skills, to have different kinds of hangouts, to do different kinds of swaps. If you want to workshop that in the comment section, please feel free. Have at it. Happy for this to be a space where people can continue to like pop back into and be like, "Oh, well, we tried that. Oh, we'd like to try something new." Look through the comments. "Oh, that's a great idea.

[00:08:29]We'll try that next week." Happy for that to Happy for the comment section to be that space. I just want us to start thinking and doing these things more actively.

[00:08:37]Because there are people that are doing this, and they have a safety net.

[00:08:43]They have people They have multiple And I was like, "I don't know how close any of these people actually are to anybody, but at least they can recognize them in a crowd.

[00:08:51]At least there's some sense of I know them."

[00:08:55]If something goes awry, potentially there's somebody there that they can call.

[00:09:01]Like this is not community Community, yes, it's for the soul. Yes, it's so beautiful. It's for survival, also.

[00:09:09]So, I think that we need to start behaving in such a way, especially if you are in places like the United States.

[00:09:16]These are my thoughts. Let me know yours in the comments. Stay safe out there.