2026.1.5 👉 peace, joy, and community for the new year

Last updated on 05 Jan 2026

Ancient sacred banyan tree on the grounds of the Museum of Siam in Bangkok, Thailand, August 2025. Banyan trees are the world's biggest trees; they can grow sideways as well as upwards, rooting again and again, like a strong community.

Dear friends and colleagues,

Like many of you, I like to take some time at the turn of the year to reflect on the year just passed, and anticipate the year to come.

Silence and solitude are like oxygen for me. But as I flicked through my GCal for 2025, I realized that so many of my favorite memories involved being in community with others. Family, friends, and colleagues, of course. But also neighbors, acquaintances, and people I may never see again.

Sharing green tea and rice balls with runners and volunteers after a parkrun in Tokyo.

Co-working and catching up online with fellow independent consultants.

Long conversations walking the (Anti Racist) Cumbria Way.

Sharing curry with old classmates to celebrate the 30 (!) years since we started university.

Gathering such spaces takes work, too often unseen. I wrote about this two years ago in an essay for Capita that feels even more relevant now: The Weavers of Community.

That essay mentions many weavers of community, and below are more who I didn't have space to mention. I love how many different ways there are of weaving community.

The locals: Ursula Brendling in Ambleside, UK, event director of our beloved local parkrun, coordinator of our also-beloved weekly social running group, organizer of fitness instructors from around the area to hold a day of classes to raise money for charity; Niall McNulty in Carlisle, UK, who holds community conversations on anti-racism all over the county as part of his work with Anti Racist Cumbria, and organized a group of us for a wonderful 4-day, 73-mile walking conversation across Cumbria in August.
The strategists and coaches: Amelia Saberwal, who as part of her practice runs Club Kinesthetica, a bi-weekly coaching call for leaders to explore and grow real-world challenges together; Katy Murray in Kendal, UK, who convenes spaces in real life and on Zoom for purpose-driven women, including a monthly walk 'n' talk; Huria Ogbamichael who regularly gathers friends, family, and colleagues over delicious food and recently started a Ladies of Change monthly call; Ian Lobo in Toronto and Dee Jadeja in Costa Rica, founders of the Meaningful Work Collective, and Urvi Doshi, who facilitates our wonderful co-writing group; Heather Mak in Toronto, Canada, who founded and nurtures Diversity in Sustainability, a global community of sustainability professionals aiming to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in their work; Mo Ali in Sheffield, UK, who does the same for leaders in social impact and justice; and Dawn McCarra Bass and Claire Topal, who co-founded Mightier, the first community of independent consultants I was lucky to join after setting up on my own.
The cross-disciplinary conveners: Joe Waters, Caroline Cassidy, Nicole Biondi, and the team at Capita, a global community and think tank with deep hospitality as one of its core values, who regularly gather community members, decision-makers, and practitioners to work towards a flourishing future for young children and their families and communities; Simon Battisti, creative director of Start with Children, and Antonia Cotton, who originated Impact on Urban Health's partnership with Healthy City Design, two conferences that showcase excellent work and spark and strengthen relationships along the way; Michael Feigelson, Irina Ivan-van der Kwaak and many other colleagues, who through their work at the Van Leer Foundation, bring together people with different professional skills and mindsets for spaces and communities where young children thrive.
The friends and family: My partner Stephen, the engine behind play dates and keeping connected with our friends in the Netherlands and my uni friend Matt, who's amazing at getting friends together and makes photo books for his family every year (let's not forget the equally important domestic sphere); my stupendously inspiring high school best friend, Maggie McKee, who took her years of community organizing to the next level by running for - and winning! - local office in her town of Quincy, Massachusetts.

The grave challenges we're facing today demand spaces for collective resilience and response. Being with others is necessary. And creating spaces for others to be with others is some of the most valuable work any of us can do.

This is my thank you to them.

And thank YOU for being here.

Wishing you peace, joy, and community in 2026,

Patrin

PS I'm experimenting with weaving community more deliberately too, by putting together a meet-up for people working to advance equity, followed by a social for people working on social and environmental change. Our first gathering took place in London in November. If you'd like to hear about future such events or are interested in helping (no need to commit now!), please let me know.

PPS A few pieces that moved me as the year turned:

john a. powell, internationally recognized expert in civil rights and Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, on organizing to build a future for all: "I believe the frame of separation — between us and the world, and between us and each other — is indeed contributing mightily to what I refer to as surplus suffering. ... Let’s stop just hoping — or despairing — about the future, and instead organize our structures, stories, culture and tools like AI to help call a future where all belong and no group is othered into being." (Othering & Belonging Institute)
Tatiana Schlossberg, environmental journalist and daughter of Caroline Kennedy, on her terminal blood cancer at 35: "My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me." (The New Yorker)
Oliver Burkeman, author of 4,000 WEEKS, on what we should do with our finite hours on the planet: "...if you’re going to do stuff that matters to you – and feel enjoyment or aliveness in doing it – you’re going to have to do it before you’ve got on top of everything, before you’ve solved your procrastination problem or your intimacy issues, before you feel confident that the future of democracy or the climate has been assured. This part of life isn’t just something you have to get through, to get to the bit that really counts. It is the part that really counts." (The Guardian)