Community

I've been thinking a lot about community lately. Not always the specifics, but just the communities I find myself in.

I teach now in a small school, certainly a community in itself. I asked one of the older girls in my class this week what it was like to attend such a small school, for nine years. She said it was great to know everyone, and have classed with kids of different ages, and feel like we were all a real family. Years ago, I might have thought exposure to so few people would not be a good method for education - but there is time for that. Learning to live and get along in a community is a rarer task and goal.

Quaker meeting is also a community for me. In fact, ti is the community itself that most appeals to me. I've taken many varied opportunities to serve the meeting this year, and they all have been involved in the members as a community. Taking our food to a shelter, cleaning the meetinghouse - these are all just as important as marching for peace and social issues. The health f our meeting, the spiritual health, is what allows us to do more important work.

I have felt a leading of late - to be of more service in a new way. And of course, way opened for me to serve on a new committee in aid to the meeting. I was nervous at first - such a large task, caring for others, especially when I have not known the members of meeting for long yet. And yet I feel strongly called to service, to be open to new avenues of community, and to retain a sense of wonderment and not fear as I follow these leadings.