Yesterday, I helped put on a community event with my coven.

It was a hot, hot day — close to 100F, which is pretty unusual in late September up here in the mitten state.

The event that was sharing space with us in the college park had, through a series of miscommunications, spread entirely out and were shocked to see us arriving with our tents and vendors and chairs and expectations of having enough room to set up.

But because we are able to do what closely knit community can — adjust rapidly, trust each other, and follow directions quickly — we managed our way through it and ended up with the lovely (hot) day-long pagan pride event we had planned.

Community is valuable because we build resilience when we trust one another.

Community is necessary when we have problems that are bigger than any one of us can (or should) have to handle all at once.

My coven is a smaller piece of the larger community, and we spend a lot of time together strengthening our ties to each other. When my teacher gives us a direction, we don’t ask questions, we follow the directions. This is partly based on trust (we know he doesn’t ask for things that aren’t necessary). This is partly based on the huge amounts of time spent in communication with each other (we know we’ll get our answers later, after things have quieted down).

One of the things I am always working toward, consciously or not, is building community.

As long as you’ve got a handful of people willing to throw their energy and time and care together for a common cause, you can build community.