New and exciting

My computer died (sad). I am writing this post on my very own new mac book (happy), financed through my dad (yikes). I am now a very cool and hip kid.

I don't think I can explain to you all that which is glorious and beautiful in my life in such a way as to have you feel it and understand. Ellie, my roommate wrote a pretty nice little bit on all this goodness on her blog. You can read that.

Let me see what I can do for you: It is at times nearly incomprehensible, these countless things which are making my life so overwhelmingly good. For one who has longed for life in community seeking sustainability, pursuing environmental and social responsibility, things such as the worm compost bin we made yesterday, the day of work spent together transforming the front yard into a garden, the vegetable lasagna and fried bananas we ate with our guests, and the humane and chemical free roach traps we've set up around the house do more than just provide me with a smile, they instill in me the proof that life, as I've always wanted it, is really and truly possible- and is happening now.

I can't stop talking about these people, this place.

As Ellie said, someday I will tell my children about the time in my twenties when I lived with boys and we grew as much of our food as we could and we mended and re-mended our clothes. How while TJ built tables on the back porch and Ellie read the Russians, Kris played his guitar along side my clumsy piano renditions of Ben Kweller, Cat Power, and Damien Rice. Or how while Kris made jelly from hand-picked grapes, and I baked a blueberry cobbler, Ellie and TJ were creating something beautiful, in prose or song and maybe getting the clothes off the line

I see all of these things as ways in which the Good Kingdom is revealing its presence in the world, or at least on the 27 block of Fort Ave...which is precisely the kind of place that the King would likely move and work: small, a little obscure, oftentimes odd, but deep and rich in the lives of us four (so far).

It's like this: the beauty I'm living is like finding out more of a secret gradually being revealed, that has always been revealing itself, very slowly, and with perfect timing. And here in this place with these brothers and sisters, the loveliness and joy of the Secret, the implications and applications of this revealing Secret, is becoming less and less vague. On the 27 block of Fort.

You came to save us

to re-create us (all things grow)

I'm all moved in to the new house! Eleanor and I share a lovely blue room with five windows and built-in book shelves. We have a front porch for outdoor community and a back porch for respite and reprieve. In the back there are daffodils planted under the clothesline and the yard is shaded by two lovely pecan trees.

Down the street about 5 blocks is our garden, shared with 6 other brothers and sisters. Ellie and I picked the first-fruit of our labor- a cucumber! we immediately snapped it in half and ate it.

On Wednesday, Ellie and I are building a chicken coop under the deck. On Thursday, TJ moves in! When I get back from India in June, we're having a party- a Party Attack, actually- and inviting all our friends and neighbors. get ready.

The three/four of us in the house are having conversations about and making efforts at establishing intentional community- any ideas or suggestions you have to help us enrich our living together would be extremely welcome.


Sunday was a big day- can I tell you about it? let's go from midnight to midnight:
12am on Sunday, I'm at a Great Gatsby party, dressed to kill in a flapper dress, drinking prohibition gin and tonics, and dancing like mad to Bridget Bardot, my new favorite French pop artist. All my favorite Great Texts majors were there and we celebrated the momentous occasion of their graduation from Baylor in high style. Near 3:30 Ellie and I meander back to the Bridgewaters to sleep and awoke at 8:00 for church.
At church we had a dedication ceremony for Jonas, Carrie and Fernando Arroyo's son. The Mennonites know how to do this right. It wasn't a mere dedication but a ceremony of blessing in which the mother and father and all the church spoke words of blessing over the baby and family. At the end, Fernando spoke a blessing to us, the greater family. It was beautifully moving and I cherish every bit I can remember of it.
The beautiful time of worship and communion closed with a children's sermon, delivered by me, on non-violence. My part was quite minor and insignificant when paired with the incredible thoughtfulness in the words of the kids. In their answers to the question, "why are people sometimes not friends with other people?" two said, "we aren't friends with people who are different from us," and "sometimes we just aren't nice." And to the question, "why do friends sometimes argue," they responded saying, "selfishness" and "not getting your way."
This place is so spiritually and emotionally rich that I sometimes know no other response than weeping at the beauty of these people.
I then went to a potluck lunch where Kombucha and water were the two beverages served. Only this place, only these people. As we left the potluck to go paint our new room, all the musical instruments came out and we were very sad to go.
After painting most of the afternoon away, we went back to the Bridgewaters to work on our own Kombucha batch. We bottled the old brew and made some new tea to ferment for the next one. Our mushroom pet is now happily stowed away in a dark closet, eating up caffeine and sugar until we're ready to drink him.
(this is delightful Kombucha)
After dinner with church friends, we headed back to our new house where we ate yogurt and looked at all the pictures in my big Sudan book by candlelight (we didn't have electricity yet). We slept on the floor of the dining room.

It was another lovely day


And now:

"May we be a sign of the Kingdom of God. May we be a sign of the presence of God in the world. May we be one as the Father and Son are one. May we be a community of forgiveness and celebration"

Shalom