Leaving the Ones You Love

The last save date for this post was 20th November 2017. It is an historical recollection at the time it was written. For more about looking backwards, read the introduction.

Enjoy what was...

Dear Adventurous Reader,

I am sitting in the car. It is hot outside, and heating up, going on to about 80 degrees today. I have the windows down. Outside the birds sing, twittering a lovely tune. The wind blows through the trees, pollen dancing upon the ever-changing breeze. And the air-conditioners of the church grind away, creating the cool room for the masses inside.

This afternoon we are leaving Greensboro. Six weeks of time with family, and friends.

Family and friends

Family and friends have a way of tying themselves around our souls. The little stories we tell weave our lives together. Like vines around a tree, we grow, and our stories interweave, and we can never be the same again.

Each time we have lived in community we have always left different than the people we started as. Stories are told. Our lives are shared. We listen, and change, and grow. And we are never the same as we once were.

Leaving Greensboro this time, it struck me so deeply. Living in community is a place where we can exist, but it truly changes us on the inside. I am grateful for community, and all the places we find ourselves in.

“You Gotta See The Baby…”

Thomas and Sarah had a baby girl. She is a cute little one. Six weeks ago she ate and slept, as one would expect from a month-old baby. Within six weeks she has changed; she looks around and smiles when spoken to, she has snuck in some growing, too. Small changes, but so noticeable inside six weeks. We have had the privilege of sharing a good part of her first few months.

We had a visit from the Mama and Papa Rickard, and Granny Smith. They planned a visit to meet baby Stella, to hang out with Thomas and Sarah, and to spend some time with us. Picking them up from the airport was no easy feat, Pa was a surprise visitor, and thus had no seat accounted for him for the drive home.

For two weeks they shared a house with us. Wonderful discussions, mingled with great meals and great company. We went to the park, and visited places in Greensboro. Went to an air-show at a US Marine base in North Carolina. Laughs were had, and a good time for all.

The Patience and kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Faust

We arrived on a Thursday. The car stunk like a road trip had taken place inside it - as if a skunk had peppered the car with stench.

We arrived at the Faust house, because it was the only place we knew how to get to in Greensboro. Mr. Faust came and shook our hands (I couldn’t give him a hug, because of the stinky-ness). Mrs Faust came outside, and almost immediately was taken aside by Adeline, who wanted to pick flowers in the front garden.

By the afternoon they had departed to go and see The Twins and we had moved into their spacious house.

After the weekend, when they got back, we had to learn how to dance around each-others movements in the shared house. Listen to each other, and understand how things were done. Before long, the house started to work. We could dance without standing on each others toes.

We had planned on staying two weeks and moving on to the next place - we had not planned that far ahead. But inside those weeks Ma and Granny had decided to come and visit. Make the trip over, and see us and Baby Stella - she gets to meet the newest grand-child, and also see us after our winter in Canada. The Faust’s had a chat and we were allowed to stay and await their arrival.

In the end it totalled around 6 weeks we stayed with them. Six long weeks sharing a house, and the Faust’s were happy to dance to the music that was playing around them.

During that time we had discussions. We shared stories. We listened to each other. We grew into a small community. When Ma, Granny and Surprise Pa arrived, we changed how the dance was, learned over again, and it continued.

Community. And Departures.

It is difficult to leave after spending time with people you love. After learning to dance you have to walk away, leave behind the life that you have made together, and head off on new adventures.

This part always pull me apart on the inside.

Stop. If only we could freeze time.

That afternoon you spent in the sun, at the park, talking with baby Stella.

The evening, as the sun sunk below the horizon, orange subset shining off the clouds, and we sit talking as dusk turns to night.

Being a guest at a new friends house, trying whisky, talking board games. The children scootering off home, in the dark, as the neighbourhood sleeps.

An afternoon run, along the parkway, in the warm sky.

Stopping by the park, and being shown the myriad of new treasures found in the creek.

Talking with new friends, over a morning coffee, about work, or adoption, or any of the new topics that new friends bring up.

Freeze. In that moment, when we are connecting. That feeling of being close. Those stories that bind families together.

This is what makes a community. This is how friendships grow, as we weave our lives into each others. Our stories become more than that, they bind us together.

We never leave a community the same way we started.

Now Greensboro gives me the same feeling as Wolfe Island. We stopped and we became part of a community that will forever be in our hearts.