Sighs and Hallelujahs Stories and thoughts about the adventures of life without arms

Community

First, it will fun to see how many hits I get this week with this blog post title. I suspect there will be a few folks stumbling upon my blog looking for information about the new NBC sitcom Community. If that's you, sorry to disappoint. I plan to talk about actual relationships here -- not sitting in front of a TV and acting like it's a relationship!

I'm in a season where I've been blessed with a large community of folks to connect with and to share stories with. Part of that has to do with the fact that I'm not taking any grad school classes right now and that has opened up free time to pursue relationships. And, part has to do with unique opportunities that have presented themselves within the past few months. Either way, it's been a great way to spend this fall -- with a wide variety of folks that continue to offer themselves and their stories.

Amongst my valued time with friends and family (which has increased as of late as well), I've recently joined two groups:

1. The Hearth: a small group of folks from various spiritual backgrounds. Although we are reading The Reason for God (by Timothy Keller) together, it's more of a discussion group rather than a book club. We gather at my house every other week and I'm amazed at the level of honestly and relationship I've discovered through this group so far.

2. Core Audience at Intiman Theatre: again, a diverse group of people (this one larger, at 30-40 people) that watches a play then discusses it afterward. Yesterday was the first group discussion of the year as we attended a production about Abe Lincoln that inspired great thoughts about what it means to be a leader and a hero.

The sense of community for me has less to do with joining a group, though, and much more about opening myself up to others. This is something that I believe very few of us do well, if at all.

Throughout the fall the phrase that keeps coming to mind in regards to relationship is "to have others hold up a mirror for us to see ourselves." As someone who spends a lot of time alone thinking, I'm learning that narcissism pales in comparison to what is offered in a true community. To share your life and passions with others and to have them reflect that back to you is amazing.

Recently I met a friend of mine, Pete, for lunch and he offered to me within our time together that he could see my newly-discovered love for writing and telling my story. And, in reflecting that back to me, he was asking what plans I'd put in place to make that happen. He could see the desire and now he wanted to know what steps I was taking to fan that flame. That's what I mean about a mirror reflecting. It challenged me to recognize that truth about myself and to begin to consider how I truly risk in pursuance of that desire.

Too often we think of dreams and goals as something that we set our minds to and pursue alone. That's part of the nature of who we are as humans and it makes for a great story. Instead, I'm realizing that much of our dreams and goals are realized through community. People that encourage us to take a risk, folks that offer encouragement and those that offer us a chance to rest, laugh and enjoy life. Thank you to those friends that have done those things for me -- and I can only hope that I'm providing a fraction of the same for you all.