Our Big Little Life: Right here. Right now.

We've been here for 8 days now and there have been so many good things and so much adjustment at the same time. When you're tired and weary from weeks on the go and a big move-in and are struggling to get a good night's sleep, it's really easy to focus on the hard parts, to not absorb the good around you, even when the good is sooooo good.

It has been a pretty quiet week actually. There are two "wings", or atriums as they're called here, that go off from the common house in this place, and we have about 10 or so units in our atrium. Of these 10, there are a number of people who are either out of town or ones who keep to themselves for different reasons. There are some, however, who are around and who we've met and chatted with. We've sat out in a little nook filled with cozy chairs and sofas in the common space just outside our unit in the evening and had neighbours come and join us, chatting late into the night (whispering when the quiet hour arrived). We've propped our door open and had people poke their heads in to say hi, give us bits of info, ask us how we're doing. We've seen our girls run off into the common house with other kids (or in search of other kids) and not seen them for long periods of time, knowing they're safe (the building is locked) and having loads of fun with their new friends (and possibly getting into mischief with said new friends....hmmm). We've had good moments.

There have also been hard ones. I'm trying to recuperate from the move and the stress it has put on my body and for the past few days have been experiencing low blood pressure and faintness. I hope to see this pass as I get more sleep and gain more of a sense of normal. We've both had times of needing to close the door and the blinds and shut ourselves into our cave, trying to gain a sense of it being a safe hiding place when we're feeling "homesick" for our city by the sea, or our friends back where we came from, or from the overwhelm of a huge change. I've escaped to my bedroom which feels like a gentle and peaceful sanctuary on the upper floor, away from the door and the people outside, away from the noise and the overwhelm.

There are gifts though. We are seeing them already. This God we have been following is already doing such good. We see His presence in the people who care so well for each other, and now for us. We see His presence in the small things like the way that I feel when I walk into my room - that it's a safe haven - that I feel that He is there and comforting. We see Him in the gift this community is. We see Him in the UTTERLY RANDOM way that Pito happened to meet a little boy on her walkie talkie the other day, who lives in the next subdivision, who happens to also be 6, who happens to homeschool, who happens to go to church in the area, who happened to drive by with his family today while we waited outside for them, in the pouring rain, just to wave and meet this new family that may very well become friends. We see God everywhere. In the rain and the peace that I felt as I walked to the compost this afternoon. In the tangible taste of Him I sense on my early morning walks. In the music Ryan and I play and sing in the evenings. He is here and He is good, and He has brought us here. May he have much good work for us to do.

Tonight there was a "welcome feast" for us and some other new people in the community. It was a potluck and everyone was to bring something except us newbies. :) We were SO well fed! Wow! And so many people came out! It was a gift to be able to see so many in one place, to chat with new friends and to witness our new community in action. What lovely, warm, welcoming and caring people! Really! This is what they DO. They care for one another. They live in community because they don't want to be alone and isolated. They want to know their neighbours. Co-housing is revolutionary and completely ordinary all at once. In our culture, we can so easily be isolated in our homes. We drive into our garages and can choose whether or not to engage with those around us, and how much to invite them into our lives. Townhouse complexes have the potential for more connection simply because there are shared walls, but even then, garages hide the people so often. Everything is set up to be private and isolated. Co-housing, in this sense, is really wild! I mean, to live in a building that deliberately doesn't have garages, where you need to enter your unit by passing through the common space where your neighbours are often around; it stands in contrast. (There's a joke we keep hearing that it takes an hour to take your garbage out here....because you meet so many neighbours along the way!) At the same time, I feel that co-housing is really not that strange or different. It's kind of like a townhouse complex, but we've put a glass roof over the "street" between the units, and the "clubhouse" happens to be attached to the "street". I don't know, there's something pretty....normal about seeing and knowing our neighbours.

I should be clear here too, that isolation is a lifestyle choice. Yes, many homes are set up in a way that encourages it, encourages constant privacy, isolation, living independent from the people around you, but even in that environment one can choose to build community around them. That is what we did back in our city by the sea. Remember our next door neighbours? We miss them dreadfully! I wish we could transplant them to this place, add them to the community, keep them close. My sister and her family are another example of living against the isolation factor. They know their neighbours. They get into their neighbour's lives. They share time and coffee and meals and conversations with them.

But back to this place. I bet you'd like to see what it actually looks like, eh? Yeah? Wanna? Okay, here you go. xoxo Until next time.

The South Atrium, where we live. This is a picture of the "street" between the units, covered in glass so as to allow daylight to enter, but not precipitation! At the very end are the glass doors into the common house.