In our 40th year, we kept learning that community is the only way forward. NISGUA still stands strong through the storms of pandemic and fascism because our root system is forty years of comrades who believed in each other enough to imagine a better future. Our branches are the hundreds of people we connect with for advice and mutual support. And our leaves the generations to come, who will one day live in right relationship with each other and Mother Earth. It’s been a hard year. It’s been a hard four decades. And yet, as we continually learn and re-learn: the shared struggle is worth it. Every time. Always.