Community

I think a lot about the concept of community. Why we crave it, what I love about it, why we don't experience more of it.

I've always been drawn to small towns that have the feeling of community. Zurich is one of those towns to me...always has been. It feels like 'home', even though I only ever lived there for a summer, and for the first 6 months of my marriage. I'll never forget the feelings I had the very first time I visited Zurich after Joel and I had just met. I fell in love with the town immediately.

Growing up in Waterloo, I still always enjoyed life outside of the city. We went to a small church about 20 minutes from Waterloo and I spent a lot of time hanging out with friends from church, playing at their farms, and feeling like a part of the small community my church was in. I didn't mind growing up in Waterloo, in fact, our crescent was quite close-knit (at least the kids were). Almost every house on the crescent had kids my age and we were out every night playing hide and seek. All winter we were all out playing on the snow hill together. In the summer we would ride our bikes and pretend we were all married, and drove to our jobs. An electrical box was the 'gas station' and we would gas up our bikes. We would play for hours and hours, only coming in for supper.

It makes me sad that Clinton is not a tight-knit community like this. I'm sad that my kids have no neighbour friends to play with. Thank goodness my kids are all close in age and can play together, but I still wish I could let the kids go out to play with their friends, and just have to call them in for supper. Is it this community? Is it the time we live in? Where we have to be cautious about everyone, and we can't feel safe to let our kids cross the street to play with friends? I'm not sure.

It makes me sad that families don't get together more often and share their lives together. When we have house church I always love those times together with another family. Sharing a meal, sharing our lives, sharing our hopes, disappointments, frustrations together. Are we really too busy to invest in other people's lives? To invest in meaningful relationships? The chapter I read this week in Fresh Brewed Life was on friends. At first I thought, yeah, I have tonnes of friends. The more I read about her description of good friends, the more I wondered whether I'd really ever invested enough time into a friendship to develop those "close friendships" with anyone. Was there really anyone I could think of that I could call at 4 a.m. if I had a crisis and just needed to talk (with someone other than Joel?). Was there a friend that I could share the crap in my life with and know that she would be there to listen and support me? I didn't think so. I blame this on myself. I've had great connections with many people from time to time, but I haven't really taken the time to invest in a friendship where the two of us would get together on a regular basis and share our lives.

Living in Clinton I've always felt a little 'out of the loop' from my church girlfriends from Zurich. I'm just far enough away that I'm not really part of the community. There was a time where I wanted nothing more than to move to Zurich and to be able to feel like a part of that community. But then God showed Joel and I that we were in Clinton for a purpose. That truth has been revealed to us more and more in the past 18 months. Clinton is home to me, there is no doubt. But God revealed to me this week that I do have a longing for a true friend, one that I can be myself with, and be able to talk about the things I'm struggling with. Maybe it's just that I don't allow myself to open up more with girlfriends, because I think that I have a lot of friends who feel they can confide in me, which is great. I love to be there for people! Sometimes I just wish I wasn't the one who always had to make the phone calls, set up the get-togethers, host the dinners.

Maybe I'm just a whiner.

But I dream of a day when Clinton lives up to it's name as the "Heart of Huron County". I dream of places in town where people would get together and share their lives. Where neighbours would love eachother, support eachother, lend a hand.

Joel and I try to have a date morning as often as we can and we head up to Bartliffs (the local bakery). I love it. Not only do Joel and I get to spend time together (with Lyric as well), but we always get to see the seniors that get together there in the mornings. It's the same every time we go in; the ladies all sit around a table on the one side of the restaurant, the gentlemen all sit on the other side. It makes me smile to see them all sharing laughs, sharing stories, sharing their lives. They all know us now, and Lyric is a real joy to them when we come in. That's the feeling that I love, and I want more of. That's my dream for the other generations in Clinton as well.

The Early Years centre in town opened up over five years ago. When it started the place was packed with parents and children. Now, for some reason, people just aren't going anymore. I don't know why. It's a struggle trying to get people out to groups here in Clinton and I'm not sure why. One of the funniest/saddest things we've noticed is that when we get to a park where there is an adult with kids, they would leave shortly after we arrived. Is it that people are shy? Snobby? Too busy? Want their privacy? I really don't know.

It's time for Clinton to find it's heart again. It's my prayer for our "small town with the big city feel".

Mel