Notes on the Journey: October 2010

Hello, friends. Jenn here. Ryan and I have been talking about a good place to go with this blog. There is a LOT we could talk about. . . . which we haven't been the most faithful about putting on here. You see, we have the best intentions about not being slackers on this blog, as we know you people out there check it daily and sigh resignedly when we've yet again *not* posted something by the time you go to bed each night. We are flattered, and regret to cause you such disappointment. But sigh no more! We are coming out of slackerdom to describe a day in the life of our community.

This is edge-of-your-seat thrill stuff people, so get ready. Brace yourselves; here's the run-down. Ryan and I wake up and go to work ridiculously early (Ryan especially). Ryan gets home in the early afternoon, me around 4:00--4:30; everyone else is usually home a little later as they get to work later. Each week, our community plans five meals that we will eat together. Each meal has two people on cooking, two on dish cleaning (Pittsburgh houses that were made a really long time ago have no fancy schmancy-ness such as dishwashers). That's ten opportunities a week to be involved with a meal, either cooking or cleaning; each person usually has a role in two or three. Which means. . . two times a week, at least, we eat delicious meals we have absolutely no responsibility for! Pretty wonderful, eh?

So. We get home. If one of us is cooking, we usually start around 5:30 or so. (To see our fabulous meal board created by the talented Amber Howard, head on over here to check it out! *Friends' blog plug*). Somewhere in the window between 6:00 and 8:00, we eat. The exceptions to this rule are Tuesday and Friday; Tuesday a friend of our community hosts a huge dinner for various people in our network of friends. This and/or leftovers from Sun. and Mon. provides our Tues. night meal. Friday is date night.

At 9:00 every night (or mostly every night, except for Fridays), we gather for prayer. I could write a whole different post about this. Karen (of Karen and Dave) has a special love for exploring different prayer practices and encountering God through different traditions. Ergo, we change up our prayer style just about every week. Lectio Divina, Taize prayer, intercessory prayer, imaginative prayer. . . . all these words would have been meaningless to me two months ago, but they are regular practices now. Quite the education! And it's only just begun.

Around 9:15--20, we pack our lunches for the next day. Then, guess what we do?? You won't believe this. We go to bed. Usually pretty early (especially Ryan and I), as our schedules permit no sleep-in time. Then we wake up and do it all again.

WHEW!! Seriously, not the most thrilling stuff to talk about, but if anybody out there is wondering what it is like to be in an intentional community, there you have it. (Another Howard blog plug: head here for pictures of our common living spaces. Those Howards are way more on top of this blog thing than we are). What I'm leaving out, of course, is a description of how rich we are finding this style of life to be. We don't intend to always share apartments with other people. What we have now is not a long-term arrangement--all of us understood that going in. But what we would like to work toward is integrating this style of life into a more sustainable situation. It is wonderful to be around two other strong marriages and to learn from them daily. It is wonderful to have people to share chores with. The knowledge that there are people nearby with whom we can share our days and our lives on a regular basis is encouraging, and we are blessed beyond belief that they are such generous, loving people. The days are short; they fill up quickly and seem to rush by. Ryan and I are in disbelief that we've already been here for over two months! Our lives here, though definitely not perfect, are very full. There is a quiet joy we are finding by living near and sharing our lives with good people who want for their lives some of the things we want for ours. Oh; and you've just GOT to see this place in the fall. Pittsburgh does fall better than any place I've ever seen. I'm just a little bit (or a lot) in love with this place right now, and daily feel so thankful to be here. (We'll see how I feel in February when I'm buried under two feet of snow).

Here's a few parting shots: a few weekends ago, Ryan and I went kayaking in downtown. . . for FREE! This past Friday, we went to the top of Mt. Washington, which overlooks the city. You can ride an incline up to the top, but we were cheapies and drove it instead. Here's what we saw; enjoy!