Community. I’ve been thinking a lot about this word lately.
I’ve been thinking about the community that I have enjoyed being part of on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6am- for over 6 years now.
November Project Canada.
(a smile)
Did I just join a community that was already formed? Or, just by showing up, did I contribute to – alter even – the composition of this community?
What about you?
We share something in common. Something that Andrew, Jen, and Nadim created the framework for (ok, maybe they built us the best sandbox ever!) and well… together, WE built this community. Each and every one of us.
Whether you have come to every single NP workout or just one, are the fittest human alive or are/were new to fitness, are/were new to 6am or love early mornings, believe in a certain God or no God at all, support one political party or another, eat dahl and roti or meat and potatoes, trudged up hills in -20C or have just come on bright and sunny days, were born in this amazing country or elsewhere, look a certain way, love a certain way… these things and more have been part of what has built the NP community.
These things all matter. They make you who you are. And then you chose to bring all of that uniqueness to NP.
So guess what?
YOU built the NP community. You’ve made NP Canada work towards a proverbial common purpose – run up that damn hill!
We have a common purpose yet have such amazing differences. This collective is something I miss. A lot.
While the “pulsecheck” survey is still in progress (and if you haven’t filled it out or have no idea what I’m talking about, you can contribute your thoughts here), we have heard a few things quite strongly:
- You miss NP Canada a lot too. In fact, you miss the community more than anything else (what? You don’t miss burpees the most?).
- You’ve got pretty mixed reactions to gathering in a group given the current, uncertain covid sitch (and no, we were not moving in that direction rather simply taking a pulse check on how you felt about this)
- You want to feel connected to the NP community
Well, we’re in the midst of reading through the dozens and dozens of responses that came our way. Thank you for taking precious time to share your thoughts with us. We’ll go through these and start to develop some new plans.
A few final thoughts from me:
- Maybe you noticed that I signed off with “together is better.” I actually believe that. I want to continue building NP… with you. I think by now we all know that things are going to be different for a while. That doesn’t mean that we can’t still contribute to and grow the NP Canada community. Let’s do it together.
- I’m looking forward to switching things up a bit so that we can be “together but apart” during covid. We miss each other. Let’s do something different so we can still feel connected. I don’t know about you, I’m using this unusual period of time (covid) to take advantage of all the silver linings. Watch for the beginnings of #togetherbutapart starting as early as next week!
- One of my goals with taking on this leadership role is to continue building on our founding co-leaders’ great work of thinking and acting in an inclusive way. This morning, fitness community is for anyone who wants to be part of it – those who wants to contribute to and even alter this community (like each of us did). I’m a different person and have different perspectives and experiences on this topic. I’ll share more thoughts and personal NP experiences on inclusivity in the near future (and no, I haven’t had all positive experiences at NP).
- As we think about reconnecting our NP community (covid is here for a long while longer), I want to continue bringing the November Project Community Agreements to the forefront. When Jen, Nadim, and Rob first shared them with us all, I thought they made a lot of sense. How these Agreements #justshowup in our NP community is up to all of us.
- Rob and I have been meeting lots over these past few weeks on not only the administrative side of being a leader but also about what it means to be a member of this community and how to address the topics that our society/community is experiencing. We are co-leaders together I know I can speak for him when I say that the future is bright and exciting.
Check our social channels for the beginning of #togetherbutapart
~together is better
Lazina
(Thanks Steven for giving us so many memories to look through)
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