Please welcome @Suki Zoe. Suki is a fellow Green Party member and our social media Director for the East Hampshire Green Party. But she is also my girlfriend. So I am a very biased. All members are equal, but some are a little bit more... special. Sorry, but it is true. We live in a world of individuals, some of whom have close family, but even they may be scattered across a nation or even across continents. One of the greatest challenges facing us as we try to reduce the impact of the Climate Crisis is the need to connect with others, build alliances and friendships, build communities, and work together. Village life, for most of us, is not even a memory. So our understanding of what community looks like may be sketchy at best. I have found recently that even when ideals overlap, you can have conflict. The sense of urgency battles with the concept of the right or wrong way to do things. Even when I feel our efforts are minuscule and will have no impact at all, I still want to do the right thing, say the right thing, treat others with respect, and yet I want to move forward quickly. We are in an emergency; tipping points loom on the horizon. When my efforts seem thwarted by my colleagues, I feel panicked. We can battle over the minutiae of wording and intent, or we can do the best we can and keep moving. But the cost of haste can result in weeks of delay. The need to align efforts, again and again, is vital in order to avoid the kind of conflict that can tear nascent communities apart. I find this requirement agonisingly frustrating, but I have found this last month even more painful as I see the results of pushing for speed, rather than understanding, have set us back. The broken nature of our modern lives means that trust is low. Intention is doubted and tested. We are willing to offer some leeway, but we seek the proof that the other is genuine. We are ready to pounce at the slightest hint that ill will is intended. It is understandable; there are so many examples of deviousness and self-serving actions all around us. The only way to overcome this is self-reflection, owning our own actions, then seeking to understand the other. When a conflict occurs, time is needed for this process to run its course.