Nothing is Sweet or Easy About Community

Nothing is sweet or easy about community.  Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows but make them visible to each other in a gesture of hope.  In community we say: "Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs -- but we do not have to live it alone.  We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone. become sources of healing when we live them as a part of a fellowship of mutual care." --  Henri Nouwen