I dropped by a friend’s studio today for an “afternoon work party”—a few folks from the internet co-working together—and it was so nice. I love working remotely, but I miss the energy of being around humans in a shared space. I forgot how much fun it can be to just... be around fun. To laugh, and to make others laugh. To listen to music together, eat together, and occasionally fall into silence as everyone gets very focused.

I was an internet stranger to this friend a few months ago, and I feel fortunate now to call them a friend. They were the first person to make me feel truly welcome in this new place that we now call home. They helped me to start building a community here, helped me to understand more about my brain, and have been unendingly open and generous. It’s such a gift to connect with kind, creative folks. I’ve been lucky over the years.

I keep reflecting on the fact that I started keeping this blog by writing about wanting to build community, and that less than a year later I really feel like I’m building one. Writing has helped, actually, just as I hoped it would. It’s helped by literally connecting me with folks through writing, but also helped by giving me space to articulate, every day, what it is that I’m actually looking for, whether right here or in morning pages.