It's so important. Knowing all of my neighbors and having a few active PODs really helped me through the height of the COVID pandemic. I was grateful that I had spent years in advance laying those foundations. Highly recommend.
I did too. I had an amazing support structure. Then polycule drama and medication-induced psychosis, among other things, blew everything apart just before COVID.
I barely survived.
People needed me. That's literally the key reason I'm still alive. And in order to make sure I'd continue being able to help, I built interdependence via my solidarity work on social media.
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CW suicide
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When all that happened, I got ready to die. Had the meds laid out & everything, said my goodbyes.
2 people attempted suicide as a direct result (failed, planned to try again) & 3 more made explicit plans.
I stuck around initially because some of my chosen family badly needed a place to live, & one of those people was 11 years old. Keeping them safe was more important to me than ending the pain.
Incidentally, your work is a non-trivial component of what keeps me going. Seeing you tirelessly working to improve the lot of oppressed people gives me much needed hope.
I know HOAs are terrible, generally speaking, but I used mine to help neighbors in my small condo building during the pandemic. It's also been useful to get some of my neighbors to consider options outside of calling cops.
