Healing Human Connection

“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion. Most of us find that space of healing communion with like-minded souls.” – bell hooks, All About Love

Dear Friends,

However arbitrary I know a new year to be, I can’t help but pause and reflect when it comes. And in looking back on 2021, I see a year full of difficulty but also filled with healing human connection.

When I struggled through last winter, I had a boss and coworkers who showed me grace and allowed me to take a break. In the spring, when life was unbearably hard, my best friend turned everything around with a simple suggestion and an enormous amount of love, and then my family helped me get better. In the fall I moved to Boston, a new city where I knew no one, and everyone at the Friends House made me feel at home within days. 

Although these last two years provided a unique struggle of living amid a pandemic, it seems — at least to me — that difficult times in every year of my life have been made bearable by the steadfast love and care of friends and family (and even strangers). In the midst of those hardships, it’s the people we’re in community with that will help us through.

In thinking about 2022, I didn’t make big resolutions or plans, but I would like to carry an intention with me into this year: I want to try to be present in community for others in the way that others have so often been for me. I needed a lot of help in 2021. As I start 2022 in the best place I’ve ever started a year, I’d like to be on the watch for ways I can extend my own hand to others in need of help. 

My New Year hope for you is that you are surrounded by people who want to be a partner in community and healing with you. Those are the people that will get us through another year.

I’d also like to share with you upcoming events at the Friends House! We have a lot planned for the New Year and we’d love to see you at one or more of our events.

In peace,
Cat Green, BHFH Program Fellow