My Community

My community, Belhaven, is like a Wendy's Frosty: delightful, energizing, and my first pick. Every morning, its pleasant residential streets and heart-calming autumn air (that smells faintly of fireplaces, yawning their last sighs from burning through the night to take the chill off -- or so my poetic mind imagines) greet me as I go for an early-morning run. It's then that I am stunned with gratitude that I get to live in this place. "She's wierd," you're thinking. Maybe so. "You're happy anywhere," my quasi-mother (family friend) tells me on long-distance phone calls.

I love living here. I feel like I have settled in and have discovered my niche; now it's a matter of carving it out, day-by-day, by connecting with my church family and by loving my MTC family better than I do now (I am guilty of neglecting them--even my own roomies sometimes, b/c I get so caught up in Ms. Nelson-universe.).  My efforts to contribute to and get involved in my community can be summed-up through church. It is my outlet to connect.

I have befriended two teachers at my church who have been enormously supportive. I joined a Presbyterian church in the neighborhood, and go to functions there once per week (last night it was to prepare for the Fall festival), a family's house in my neighborhood twice per month for Bible study, and also service and Sunday school. Last night I met a college student, Lindsay, who goes to Blehaven College (as do about 20% of my church's members!) It felt so good to talk to a peer and reminsce on what being a college senior is like, and the different world of responsibility that stage of life carries. She hit it off immediately.

I also look forward to seeing Cassie at church. We became acquainted about one month ago. She used to teach middle school English in North Carolina and is so generous to provide resources and the time and patience to listen to my lesson-planning queries. The family who hosts Bible study and dinner is a light to me as well. They have reached out and made be feel like I am family and have extended an open invitation to me for dinner/visits. The father is a teacher at a private high school, and the mother, like Mrs. Wilson, is an inspiration to me. I want to be a mother like her one day: witty and intelligent and capable and still pretty. When I think I've got a lot to do, then I think about teachers who have spouses and multiple children on top of that (actually, before that).

My goal is to become more of a leader/contributor to the church, to find some capacity in which I can lead and apply my spiritual and/or practical gifts. What Dani said in her recent blog about how church involvement clears and refreshes the mind, is so, so, so very true.