by Tab Moura
I have been pacing my bedroom for an hour trying to come up with the words to write a post I never expected to write. I am writing this on January 7th, I don’t need to remind you what has taken place over the last 24 hours, or the last 10 months for that matter. We have all been through a lot. My thoughts are swirling, but the light from my window is breaking through, silently taunting me with the truth. There is so much light in the world, even here.
Those of us who found our way to cannabis therapy did so from many different paths. There is no one right way to use cannabis, nor is there one type of person who uses cannabis. However, there is something that we all have in common, it is a shared appreciation for this plant. We may call this many different things, some people like the high (ok, many of us do), some people like the relief, some people think it’s a ‘good time’, some people like to escape, some people feel it grounds them. The truth is, we all have vastly different experiences, and yet it still somehow brings us together. My right to have access to plant medicine will always require me to support your right to have access to plant medicine. We cannot have one without the other.
I believe that the path to building stronger communities is nestled somewhere in diversity, and I believe it’s wrapped up in small moments, or as Brené Brown talks about, ‘marble jar’ moments. There was a reward system created by her daughter’s teacher, where you put a marble in a friend’s jar as your trust for them grows, slowly filling the jar. “Trust is built one marble at a time,” she says. I believe that right now, more than ever, we need to invest in our marble jar connections. Who around you has earned the most marbles?
One of the defining characteristics that makes the cannabis community such a unique, diverse, courageous community… Is the small acts of kindness and generosity that seem to be given almost compulsively.
Families, growers, processors, legislators and lawyers, dispensaries and budtenders, and don’t forget our allies who support us even if they don’t use this medicine personally. Every day I witness gestures of kindness, burdens shared, help given freely, because cannabis doesn’t just make us a community, it makes us family— complete with crazy aunts and uncles.
It’s never been more important to find connection and community because we find purpose and internal strength when we choose community. It’s never been more important to intentionally look for the light in those around us and in ourselves. Being different can have many challenges, which feels like such an understatement, but I hope we never forget the benefits of building marble jar communities; I pray that light finds you even here.