Art + Community = Joy

Living in community means sharing everything! 

Hello sunshine!  How I missed you!!!  I love the sun but especially here at the RV and lately there has been a lack of it!  Having some friends visiting the last few days, the weather wasn't cooperating very well.  The constant rain, dampness, and un-seasonally cold days made it kind of difficult to show them around this beautiful area!  However, it was still so nice to have friends here at our humble abode.  Which leads to me my post for today: the need for community.  Living up here for the summer has definitely showed me some things about our life and what is really in my heart.  We came up to the RV with a plan to have a really creative time as a family re-making our very outdated RV and yes we have been doing that.  Not as much as I had intended however.  Will we have the make-over done by the end of summer?  At this point I am kind of doubted it as there are only 2 weeks left up here and one week of which we have to return back home.   But in this time away I have really come to realize how much we need to have more community in our life.

It really began to stand out to me when tons and tons of people began to filter into the camp for 2 weeks of family camp.  This quiet empty campground soon became overloaded with trailers, families, and savouring smells of burgers and hot dogs.  I began to notice a switch in my husband Steve's mood as he became much happier with the number of different people he could chat with in a day.  For me, I struggled with the desire to get things done and with taking time for people.  At the end of the day I really saw how I had to let go of getting things done and just enjoy the people here!  Having constant community has a way of bringing things out in your heart both good and bad.  It's a very different life than what we have at home where we cook for ourselves, and spent a lot of time within our home raising our kids.  But being in community we shared meals together, awoke to people saying good morning before I even hit the bathroom and spent plenty of time together.  To be honest when I left home I left feeling like community is a lot of work.  That getting together just seemed like so much effort.  But as I have been pondering community I realized, when functioning properly, it really isn't.  It's about giving and receiving, it's about helping others and allowing others to help you.

Family baseball game.

Yes there were moments when we needed a little time to ourselves and it was hard when our kids behavoir was much less than perfect!  That's the kind of stuff we tend to want to keep behind closed doors.  But not here in the camp.  I truly think our kids were the loudest!  But on the last day of family camp as the cars were loading up and the trailers were heading out I couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness over this place and in my own heart.  It would be another year before that kind of community would happen again, and even though I like some peace and quiet, I walked down the once busy road in the campground feeling like I wanted to have the people back.

Art and a community pig roast.

As the week went on I began to get more work done creatively for Funtastical Studios but I noticed a change in my husband's mood as he didn't seem as energized or even happy.  I too realized a void in my day.  Even though I love having Steve and the kids around, there wasn't the same opportunty to socialize.  Even for our 3 children, who would spend their day at the playground with tons of kids, now began to fight amongst themselves.  So, I say all this to say that when we return home we need to be more intentional about community.  I am not sure how all that looks but I know that we have a good community of people around us at home, we just don't always take the time to get together with them.  I saw how much more joy our family felt when we were around people and I realize that this is the way we are wired, just as we are wired to be creative.  So just as I have found that creating brings me great joy, so does community.

The real question: how do we bring the two together?  Having commintuy that also focuses on the arts? This is something I will need to take to the prayer closet.

Brother and sisterly love.

Making new friends.

Time spent with Papa.

Summer I sure am going to miss you!