Belonging Begins Next Door: On Community, Mutual Aid, and Showing Up
Credit to Garrett Bucks at The White Pages, for the quote and the image. Check out his link for more political inspiration.
One of my favorite parts of 2025 was hosting and joining gatherings with Neighbor to Neighbor. N2N is a neighborly mutual aid group that I helped start after a conversation with two neighbors over tea.
Since we first gathered a year or so ago, community members hosted a rural skills series, including a pickling workshop, a vehicle maintenance 101 session, and a wreath-making training, just to name a few.
One of the gatherings I hosted was a social meet-up at a local farm. I planned to attend a public farm event to hang out at the beautiful venue and support local businesses. Gathering neighbors was as easy as sending an email invitation and noting a spot where we could meet at the event. It was a delightful way to meet and enjoy a breezy summer afternoon together.
As we move into 2026, I am practicing community building in new ways. I’m particularly excited about a semi-regular and super informal mid-week hang I’m going to try. Two ground rules include everyone’s gotta leave by 8:30 because I have a bedtime, and that my place will likely be messy.
Here are a few things I pull from for inspiration:
A friend shared a podcast about “New in Town Meetups”.
Priya Parker shared 12 gatherings she can’t stop thinking about.
Amanda Litman hosted dinner every Saturday for a year.
Connecting with neighbors is so important to me because it creates the conditions to combat loneliness, bridge political divides, keep each other safe and navigate heavy snow and rain events.
As Garrett Bucks writes at The White Pages:
““That’s why you host a game night. That’s why you throw potlucks. Because it’s through shared time together that you end up loving people, and it’s only through loving one another that we truly feel comfortable asking for and receiving help. You deserve a true network of support, and quite frankly, we need you to cultivate that network, because it’s only when you’re surrounded by love that you’ll keep showing up, not just tomorrow but a year from now, when we need you the most.””
Community events can build belonging. Belonging can create possibilities we can’t even imagine.
I would love to learn from the ways you gather. What are your favorite ways to build community? What’s the most memorable gathering you’ve hosted or attended?
