Community

Xenia Kathryn's recent blog post has spawned some great comments and then thoughts in my own head....Community. Without taking the time to have links to past blog posts I'm certain that I have blogged more than once regarding my thoughts on “community”. It is so important and lacking, beyond words, in our present society. I also know that I love my little farm and would love to expand it to much larger boundaries. Would this mean that I would have to leave my “community”? As is noted in the post it seems as though for one to have acreage and grow a “farm” one must leave “community” behind. Even though I am close to Church, I live in an area where the Church community itself is spread as far as it could go. If I ever want to grow my little farm bigger (as in acreage, etc.) I know that I will not be able to do this in Western WA as the cost of living here is far too great. I know it isn't as high as in such places as California but it is much higher than such places as Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, etc. James and I have become very aware of the fact that we could sell our home here in Western WA (after living here for awhile longer to gain more equity and of course wait for the market to come back) and go to the Midwest somewhere and buy a house nearly free and clear. How appealing is that? But would I have to leave all ideas of community behind? Hmmm....not sure I really want to do that. I crave more of a close knit Orthodox Community.
I do know of one blog post I did awhile back that included the coolest Icon written of an Orthodox “Community”. Is it too much of an unrealistic “dream” that something like this could exist? I don't know. Maybe if I “build it they will come”.

In the meantime, the mister and I have decided to work much harder at creating this little farm into a self-sufficient place. The outcome we hope to achieve is debt-free (or as close as possible to that term we can get) self-sufficiency and greater community. THIS IS HARD WORK! And work I'm slowly learning to do, out of desire and necessity. It may be years before we see that final result. And it may not be in Western WA where the final result takes place.