:the one where we are building community:

you never know how things like this will go. a mixture of people from different walks of life coming together. my control freak type-a personality had me racing to the grocery store, in the pouring rain, and around the house getting everything in order before their arrival. busy is good for the introvert. i tend to forget i'm an introvert when i am engrossed in cooking and cleaning.

in an act of solidarity to mothers everywhere i chose not to clean my floors for this event. no one seemed to notice, or they were too polite to mention it.

with staggered arrival we had time to greet and introduce all of our friends to one another. some had met before, some had not. though by the time we said goodnight, it felt as though we had all been friends forever.

we gathered around our table, bought with the intention of just this. nine collectively, tucked tight, shoulder to shoulder, yet not an inconvenience in sight.

stories and laughter filled the room.
friendships formed.

at the end of the night we said our goodbyes, sending each guest home with a tiny pumpkin. a symbol of our gratitude for their part in our story.

 

 "My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?"

-Donald Miller