Dec 7 - Community...

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

It might be really nerdy and make me seem like a huge computer geek, but the community that I have become a part of over the past year online is absolutely amazing. I got pretty involved in the a pregnancy/infant loss message board after losing Olivia last year. It was such a welcoming place and I made friends with several women who lost their babies at about the same time we did. I started reading the blogs of some of those women, which is really what got me involved in the blogging community.  The support that I have received from these new friends over the past year has been invaluable. There are definitely times where I felt like I was at rock bottom and turned to them for comfort/support/advice. If you have ever experienced a personal tragedy or struggled with something, then you know how important it is to have people to talk to that just get it.

I also can say the same thing about my social work friends at school. We move together through the program as a "cohort", and I feel very blessed to have the classmates that I do. I honestly don't know how I would have made it through the program without them! It has been difficult attimes to say the least, but they have made it bearable. They were so beyond supportive when Olivia died, more than I could have asked for. The friendship between the group of us has really grown a lot stronger within this last year of the program. I know that I've made life-long friends in some of these girls!

I'm not sure what community I want to join/create/or more deeply connect with in 2011. I guess I would hope that my relationships that the two communities I've listed above only get stronger throughout the next year. I would also love to get more involved with my local loss community, but we will have to see if that's even possible.