Community – it’s a practice

I’ve been thinking a lot about community lately.  Community, relationships, circles, sisterhoods… They are important to our lives.  We need connection, we were created for connection – community.

We have a friend that we have created community, well, really we created a new little family.  We get together usually once a week or so.  We take dinner over there or we sometimes go out.

Last night, we took dinner over and Y’all, I’m telling you, I made one of the best dinners I think I’ve made.  It was shepherd’s pie.  I don’t actually like shepherd’s pie usually but DH does and I thought it would be something that he could probably eat, so… I found a recipe and I made it. 

YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS!!!  Here’s the link to the recipe.  I did make some intentional and unintentional alterations but it was delicious!  So here are the changes I made.

1. I used ground turkey instead of beef.  The paperwork we received after DH’s surgery said ground turkey was one of the only meats he could eat so…
2. This recipe uses bacon and you set it aside for a bit while do other things, and then add it back in later but… I forgot to add it back in, so we used it as a topping and it turned out perfect as our friend doesn’t like bacon.
3. I used dried Thyme instead of fresh because it’s what I had. 
4. And finally, I didn’t use any peas because our friend and myself don’t like peas so added an extra carrot.

Y’all, I’m not exaggerating , this was A-MA-ZING.

When we got to our friend’s home, she had set the dinning room table so beautifully!  We usually eat in the kitchen but she said we were having our Valentine’s dinner.  Look at this beautiful table!  

We started out sharing meals through our church’s Dinner for Eight program and we just kept it up… Once a month, then it moved to twice a month and now it’s about once week.  She is our local adopted mom.  We aren’t sure who adopted who but we’ve been there for each other when needed and it’s so nice to have that.  

We aren’t meant to go through this life alone.  We are meant to go through it together.  Some of us kind of got used to being alone during COVID lock downs, I know I did!  But it’s time we grow our communities again.  

This particular one didn’t stop during lock down… we’d go pick up dinner and take it over and we’d bring out the lawn chairs and eat outside in the driveway/garage to keep our distance.  We checked in with one another often.  We found ways to make sure no one completely alone.   If one was sick we’d leave food on the front porch and wave from the car and those small moments of connection mattered.  They were important and honestly, they helped us grow even closer.

I’ve been thinking a lot about community lately and well, I’m realizing I need to expand mine a little… now to figure out how to do that…

Do you have a community that you are apart of that supports you and you support?  Not just a place where you live but a community of support. I feel like community isn’t just a noun, it’s a verb. Community is a practice. How are you practicing community in your life?