finding community through routine

{image taken from here}

I've been think a lot lately about what community means to me, and where I find it in a still-new place.  We're entering my second winter in Australia, and the past couple of weeks have been a lot of self-reflection upon the last year and thinking on ways to improve this next year.  Community has always meant a lot to me; I grew up in a close neighbourhood community, I find seek it out wherever I plant myself, and it's something that makes me feel safe and secure.  The latter is not something I've felt much of since the big move, so finding my sense of community is going to become one of my top priorities in the next few months.

And I think I discovered a piece tonight.  I've been taking Pilates classes for almost a year now, on Monday nights.  It's a small class of eight, and with a few exceptions we have been the same group of eight this entire time.  And I look forward to seeing them each week.  I'm by far the youngest in the class, and I don't know these men and women very well, but we have a really lovely 'vibe'.  We hear about what's going on in each other's lives, we get concerned when someone is sick, and most recently we discovered one of us is pregnant.  With twins.  And today we learned she is having both a boy and a girl - and the joy we collectively felt for her was beautiful.  And I felt a part of a team that cared for and supported each other.

And I came home feeling happy and light, and I realized that my Monday night Pilates class is one of my favourite times of the week.  It was such a nice feeling to come to that realization.