It Takes A Community..

 My house is small. Bigger than where I lived before, but still tiny.  Squishing five people into a two-bedroom townhouse with one tiny bathroom.  There are windows only on one side of the house and no cross breeze.  Some days I hunger for a house.

 But what my house lacks in size, it makes up for in location.  We live at the end of the inner courtyard.  Our unit has three pine trees in the yard and is right next to the forest.  It is beautiful! Living where we do we get build friends.  There is no space, no real privacy.  Any privacy here is imagined.  So rather than live averting our eyes, we've made friends, been real, opened ourselves up.  It's a tough balance between friendship and boundaries but I think we're striking it.  And somewhere in the midst of sharing toys, stories, baked goods, meals and tea; we begin to share help.

 As a mom of small children, I firmly believe that we are meant to live in community.  There are things that I cannot do all by myself, talents that I just don't have, patience that alludes me.  But those very things I lack, someone else may have.  Today my new neighbour took my daughter.  Aris was having a hard day adjusting to being back with all those boys, so K came and gently invited her over for some girl time.  She played, ate supper there, and had to be dragged back hours later.  In the midst of my chaos, K offered something that I didn't have.  I was touched and blessed.

 Later K's oldest child was alternately running away and throwing herself down on the ground.  Her husband was working, her infant in her arms.  I borrowed the wee one until K had her two year old ready for bed.

 There are more incidents just today that I could share of how we carry each others burdens.  Life is not meant to be lived alone.  We aren't meant to do everything all by ourselves.  I am blessed to live in my tiny little rental house.  Not only do I have a roof over my head, but I am part of something bigger, of this learning how to be the Body of Christ, how to bear one another's burdens in a practical, daily way.  Ladies, you have blessed me deeply and are teaching me so much.  Thank you!