last night at the landing place, the conversation turned to what it takes to really love each other and develop a sense of family and community as the Body. i think i'm still pretty shy around these people - i don't wanna be the new girl just spouting out thoughts before people have a chance to know me... but here are a few thoughts i did have, expressed late: there was a emphasis on the necessity of really sharing time with others to build a family/community. one example given was that of 64 king, a house where a lot of people feel comfortable just being with others. at any given time, you may find ten people there who don't actually live in the house. how did it get to be that free? a couple of ideas were given. in truth, i think that one big reason for this kind of time spent together is the fact that the community has a lot of single and childless members - people in a life stage that is conducive to a lot of freedom and late nights. the feeling i get at 64 king is very similar to that of the soup house, which was one of the best places i learned to build a chosen family. again, the soup house was full of people with little outside family obligations... i love it, and a love a life that has that kind of freedom. but i also feel cautious - we can talk all we want to about how important it is to spend evenings together throughout the week, but are we building space for families and children in that? are we being intentional about including people of different life stages? the families i know (the bells, the kays, the rains, etc.) are very open and desiring community. but how often are we really thoughtful of needs like a toddler who has a bedtime when planning time spent together? how can we be more creative in addressing these things? just wondering...