community

First of all I want to include a general update for friends/family that I don't get to talk to as much or that I am not friends with on Facebook. Around this time last year I was accepted at Boston College for their MDiv program with a full scholarship, conditional upon me completing a year of service first. A few weeks ago BC had myself and other students come out for a two day visit, basically for us to get a good feel of the school, of the city, and essentially make sure we really want to go there. I had an amazing time, met some great people (and some people I would not be sad over if they decided to go somewhere else...), LOVED the class I sat in on and even got spend some time with my sister Lynne who came up from NYC for the last night I was there. I have since sent in my deposit and will officially be starting at Boston College in the fall :-). Sort of a longer update that I had meant, but hopefully this will lessen the number of times I get asked 'So are you still going to BC in the fall?' at my brother's wedding.

So onto what I had intended for this post: Community. And not the show on NBC, although I do highly recommend it to everyone (thank you Garrett for getting me stuck on another awesome show). Community is one of the most important parts of my year of service. It is incredibly important in all parts of my life, and was a huge factor in why I am choosing to go to Boston College. Seeing that the STM at BC does not schedule any classes from 12-3pm every Thursday so that everyone can go to Mass and then have lunch together astounds and impresses me. Even more than that, it calls and beckons to me.

If I were asked what comes to mind when someone says "community" I would have lists of words to spit out. Home. Safe. Hard. Joyful. Frustrating. Beautiful. Motivational. Transforming. Powerful. Tears. Laughter. Learning. I really could just keep going.

Community has certainly been exceptionally difficult this year. There has been a lot of tears and frustration, and even at times, a temptation to just leave. Having bed bugs a few weeks after moving into a house of ten people who don't know each other can create a lot of complications that there might not be otherwise. The ten people who found themselves together are certainly an awkward bunch. Everyone in my community this year is SO DIFFERENT. Not bad, not weird, simply different. It has certainly contributed to some conflict. With ten vastly different personalities coming from ten backgrounds that have some but not a lot of intersections, there are plenty of places to find disagreements. Living at a new site that has lots of work to be done on it and no history with the program for us to connect to has made all of our difficulties just a little bit tougher. But for all of our trials and differences, I am eternally grateful.

It is easier to love people you get along with, or people you have a lot in common with. Love isn't always easy, but quick connections often means not having to fight to love. CoHo has fought to love. We have fought through disagreements on chores, alcohol, movies, composting, fun night, prayer, toilets, bed bugs, vomit, strangers, you name it. Sometime in the past couple months, I couldn't tell you exactly when, the dust settled and we just kind of settled along with it. Truthfully, it's difficult to describe. Things stopped being as difficult. Community meetings had less fighting and we found ourselves choosing to be together most of the time. Not an active choice, but a much more natural one. We eased into one another a little bit more. It's not still perfect and we still have conflict, but conflict is different when you are able to trust that the other person loves you regardless. That love that we've fought for and with has helped me grow in incredible ways. We needed each other to get where we are. I truly believe we love each other. I also believe that we wouldn't love each other in the way we do if we hadn't fought since we arrived in August. We battled through differences and came out on the other side choosing to love one another. Many of us have commented, in passing, that we are so much happier now. We watch movies, have spur of the moment dinners out, and plan trips together to get out of the city (see post on Boulder below...). I feel that we are a true community, in much more than just name.

Community is important to me, and my time this year has helped me grow. I love CoHo so dearly. I will sorely miss them when we have to leave, but am lucky enough to take all the love I have and everything I have learned from them and take it with me into my next community.

Spring has sprung!

Spring time has come!! Occasionally we still get a bit of snow in the mornings (no, I am not kidding) but it mostly melts by the afternoon and I don't really need a coat walking home! It's sunny most days, which makes me a very happy person :-)

To celebrate spring and to just get the heck out of the house and the heck out of the neighborhood for once, CoHo decided to take a little trip up to Boulder! We did some thrift shopping, where we almost adopted this nice grey kitty. We figured our directors would not appreciate us bringing home a kitty, let alone a thrift store kitty, so we left it behind :-( Granted, one of our housemates is allergic, but it would have been fine!

We headed up to Pearl Street and had ourselves a super fun evening!

Animal hats!!!!

I really liked this bookstore a lot. It had one of the more interesting floor plans I have ever seen and I literally almost got lost...

Awkward sweater.

FINGER PUPPETS GALORE! I really liked the llama one, and also the pink panther puppet. But no puppet was as great as...

HARRY POTTER FINGER PUPPET!!

This jazz duo was pretty young but really darn good. I was on my way out of the bookstore when I realized it was them playing and not just a recording playing in the store.

Last time I had seen someone juggle fire, they had accidentally hit a clothesline above their head This guy fared much better.

**Important note: All photos taken by the amazing Danielle Fenske!!