Never feeling alone when facing challenges is the essence of community. I felt a great loss of community with the pandemic when I no longer could walk to work and see familiar people in town. We always said hello and checked on how it’s going, just like hikers on the trailer. These are not people at my place of work, not members of my climbing party. These are people who care about me, who are quick to encourage to keep meeting the challenge.

Probably like the people you met on the trail, my town community is made up of people with differing beliefs. We don’t ask. if we are aware, we don’t judge. For what we value most is not being alone when facing a challenge.

How may we practice more trail social behavior in our day to day life to not be bowling alone?