Living in Community

Taste testing doesn't hurt before you share.

“You have chickens?” The funny expressions we get are almost reason enough to have the chickens in the first place. When I think about it practically, there is absolutely no reason why we would have chickens. We live a stone’s throw from Walmart. We’re not an earthy, granola, heritage farm, all natural, save the earth type of family… no matter how hard our elementary school science teachers are trying to get my kids to become that… can you say, “off on a tangent?!” So why the chickens? It’s honestly the same reason we have a garden with three more tomato plants than we need. It’s the reason we buy an extra dozen bananas every time we go to the grocery store. Because we like to live in community.

Eggs, tomatoes, and bananas… community?

Add to that, trucks, sprinkler installs, bicycle pumps, corn hole, cookies, milk bones, a scanner, Redbox rentals, trips to Walmart with the neighbor & internet connections.

Have I lost you?

All of those things I mentioned are intentional steps to make our neighborhood a place that is more than just a place to sleep… and hide away. We give away eggs every week, extra tomatoes every summer, we make banana bread and share it with the neighbors, and my neighbor’s truck is our truck whenever we want it. We have our own key. When we installed sprinklers, we could have (maybe not) figured it out all on our own, but instead we invited a few families over to help. My neighbor’s bicycle pump is in my garage, we have milk bones for the neighborhood dogs, we share Redbox rentals, we scan pictures for the neighbors, they use our wireless internet, when we head off to Walmart Oscar jumps in the car with us. They bring us handmade tortillas, we take them pecan pies and cookies. We play corn hole and trac ball. They watch our dogs and we watch theirs.

We don’t have chickens, extra tomatoes, bananas and all the other stuff just because. We’re trying to experience, and I believe we’re pretty close to experiencing, community; real community right in our own neighborhood.

My hope? That you too would live intentionally in community with those on your street. It takes someone to make the first move and the best part is Toll House makes the first move is easy.