Yesterday I talked about how much I like my dentist. Today my affections have transferred to my haircutter. Lots of good people in my daily life actually. Today my work peers, tomorrow acquaintances and friends in the arts community and also a few of my best friends. Sunday I will write because next I want to join a community of writers.

Webster’s says community is “…the people with common interests living in a particular area…the area itself…an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location….a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society…a group linked by a common policy…a body of persons of common esp. professional interests scattered through a larger society…”

Is my haircutter in one of my communities? My State Senator? My son? Or does my community mean a place like my street, the North Valley, all of Albuquerque? Of course the answer is all of the above.

Think of your world as one of overlapping circles, each representing a different community. It’s fun. One circle is your support community—dentist, haircutter, doctor, landlord. Other circles will be filled by the people with whom you work, dance aficionados, writers, New Mexico artists, fellow Democrats. Then there are best friends and family. You will find the circles all overlap to a larger or smaller extent. The result is that you feel sheltered and encircled (in a good way–usually); those circles can so aptly lend  themselves to a sense of mental, emotional and physical well-being.

A few of my favorite examples of community:

• A big group of friends share my love of contemporary dance but they live in every corner of the globe.
• New Mexico artist friends live here and sometimes we also work on politics together; I hope to join some in their writers’ community. A few are also my best friends and we meet socially.
• My San Diego son and I are increasingly sharing a foodie interest, along with a few friends here. Maybe I’ll try to enter his hiking world at the very edges.
• My haircutter friend overlaps in a few of my circles also. He is the friend of friends, supports me by cutting my wispy hair with no fuss and he works at a downtown club in my neighborhood.
• There will soon be a new restaurant on side of my apartment, my landlord lives next door on the other side, and my State Senator one street over. It’s my ‘hood.
• I drive four miles between my apartment and workplace, past the newish grocery store on one corner, the gas station where I usually go on another, the drugstore where I get my meds. And on it goes.

I have felt just a bit morose today. Soreness where that tooth used to be, headache, a little stressed about work. Then I started imagining all the supporting circles around me and now I feel fine.

So here’s where I get my hair cut. Obviously the place of an artist/designer.