Care Looks Like This: Intimate Dinners and Communal Healing

Last month, I hosted something that felt simple on the surface—but meant so much more.

A group of women, all of us navigating big dreams, full lives, and layered identities, came together for an intimate dinner. Nothing flashy. Just good energy, familiar rhythms, and Caribbean food from our islands of origin.

We laughed, we unpacked, we refilled each other’s plates without asking. Because let’s be real—

“Did you eat?” is just another way to say “Have you been cared for today?”

And that’s what the evening was about:
Nourishment in every sense of the word.

Not everyone in the room knew each other, but by dessert, we’d built a shared language. The kind that doesn’t need translation.

I believe in big systems change—yes. But I also believe in small tables where people feel safe enough to be real. That’s where community is reinforced. That’s where resilience lives.

This dinner was a reminder:

Connection doesn’t have to be transactional to be transformative.

Sometimes, a plate of stew peas and plantains is strategy.
Sometimes, community looks like passing the rice before the tears come.

And honestly? I want to make more room for that.