Community : a place to belong to or a network of meaningful connects ?
We are social animals. That's what we have been taught and that's what we believe in. Coming from a small family where we kind of went our own ways very soon, friends quickly became my social safety net - and so it remains. Expat life made this more relevant and the social functions of a family were almost seamlessly taken over by my amigos, over the years. Today, if I think of a happy gathering of people to celebrate anything, I first think of friends and whatever family remains, follows next. I am pleasantly surprised by those I see still surrounded by close family members and actually choosing to spend their happy and sad moments with them - I wonder what they did differently to be able to remain this way in a world where friends have mostly become what family used to be! However, that is not the point of this post - this is about our own sense of community and how growing older has impacted this feeling of belonging for me. Those who know me well, know ...