Communitas and shared experience

Social media algorithms are echo chambers. I have painstakingly curated my echo chamber to enable my participation in online discourse. Once in a while, something new and truly beautiful floats by:

"I know it can be lonely, but if this community has shown me anything it is that I am not alone.

And neither are you. There are others carrying the same grief, the same hope, the same love for this planet. It's a lot to carry.

But maybe that's what this work truly is - holding the immensity of it all, and still finding a way to care anyway. And in each other, we find strength when our own feels too small."

@wildtesa/instagram
26 October 2025

Tesa Mendoza started an online community for conservationists that includes webinars and coaching. More than just a primatologist, I bet she has some words for your soul: wildtesa.com.

Whether or not you have found "your people" locally (yet), communities occupying virtual spaces can be a mighty boon. Cybercommunities are one of the nicest things to come out of the world wide web.

Ecosystem Restoration Communities (ERC)

Restor

SER Connect

Northern B.C. Community of Practice

Archipelagos Collective

But my wish for you is that you find community that can hold your hand IRL when you need it. Whether sitting around a fire or elbows deep in the muck, working shoulder to shoulder together is irreplaceable. This is heart work.

"Communitas is inspired fellowship; a group's pleasure in sharing common experiences; being 'in the zone' - as in music, sport, and work; the sense felt by a group when their life together takes on full meaning." SpringerLink description, Communitas: The Anthropology of Collective Joy (Turner, 2012).

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