Image description: A person is running, and the surroundings are blurry and distorted. Public domain image.
All people in this world have needs that are particular to themselves.
Every person.
And
All people and all communities have unique and particular strengths to share.
Every person, every community.
I’m not sure if we can ever truly run from need, because need is one of the most honest and real things about us all. But we definitely try. There may be a number of reasons for this. Among them, we’ve internalized lot of cultural narratives about individualism, self-sufficiency, and the belief that we must produce and earn love and belonging. (Psst, those are myths. Dangerous myths).
But those cultural narratives take form in our thoughts and feelings…
“I’m a burden.”
“I’m too much.”
“I don’t want to over-ask.”
“I don’t want to trouble.”
“They’re going to get tired of me.”
Soon we’re speaking narratives about ourselves, and we run from our need and from one another.
But here is something that is truer than true. I will even speak it as testimony because I keep discovering it to be so: Interdependence is an immeasurable gift.
These days, I’m acutely aware of my need of it, and how sacred it is to receive community care.
This pushes up against so many dominant, American cultural narratives.
I am community-dependent.
We are community-dependent.
These days, I keep saying these sentences to myself, because they are freeing, necessary, and beautiful.
Truly, interdependence is an immeasurable gift.
Smuggling Grace 