Purposeful Community


I hope you all had a great holiday season. Over the break I got the opportunity to spend a couple weeks with Ashley's Family and my family. I also got the opportunity to spend time with close friends. It was so nice to connect with people and just relax, watch movies, play games, and just enjoy each others company.

In reflection I want to make sure that I make opportunities to spend time with people. Whether Ashley and I open our home to people to have dinner together, or we just meet friends for a drink. I find that my most enjoyable nights or days are full of friends spending time together. Talking about life or just acting stupid, I love when those times end up in discussions about life and you walk away challenged.

These moments cannot be created or fabricated. I believe we must purposefully position our lives to open up our homes to others, and allow for opportunities to spend time with people. I will admit that I do not always do a good job of this. I am selfish and want "My Time", and do not want to be bothered by others. When you have had a long day of work, the last thing that you want to do is come home and "host" people at your house.

I want to ask you all, should there be a balance of purposeful community, or should we always be open to commune with each other? I want to say that we should always open our home to one another, but at the same time you wonder if there needs to be some sort of balance. I would love to hear your thoughts.

My own challenge is to open my life up to others more often, and not become so settled in my own status of Life.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Balance is such a wonderful and awful word. I think mostly because so few of us have truly found a healthy balance. We (the Henry's in particular) are constantly on the go...we had an invite for a movie tonight and even though I wanted to accept, we had just gotten home from another friends home. When we take time to rest, recharge or contemplate, I find that I am happier and fuller when I spend time with others. When I am worn down, I see traits such as selfishness and complaining when I'm around those I care about. That being said, there is a beauty in community that can't be matched with solitude. So again,I believe that it is the balance that will bring the beauty. Those are my 2 cents!

Matt said...

Thanks Alyssa,

I think there does need to be a balance, but a lot of times I use my "balance" idea as an excuse to hybernate. Community would be no fun for anyone if we never stop to recover.

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