The risk of showing up
Over the last week, we’ve had several opportunities to show up & share food & gifts with one another.
On Thursday night, some of us gathered on Overalls Farm for a Neighborhood Commons (NC) holiday potluck & white elephant gift exchange. I wasn’t sure what to expect because our last NC meeting, my first one back after sabbatical, felt a little “off”. We were a weary bunch that night. Everyone was either tired or frustrated or feeling under the weather.
Admittedly, NC has been on a weird and windy path since it started. Birthed during COVID, it has been hard to flesh out and sustain this dream, especially in a community as fluid as ours. It’s been hard to build much momentum. Still, despite the ebb & flow, the awkwardness & discomfort, there has been a small group of people faithfully showing up month after month to see what’s in the making.
So given all of that history, when my daughter and I showed up to the farm on Thursday night, I was skeptical & wondering who, if anyone, would show up for our holiday potluck. As the farm lights turned on and the bonfire began to blaze, people started trickling in, and something surprising started to take shape. At one point, as we sat around the fire making smores, I stepped back and noticed what was happening. This is Neighborhood Commons: a gathering of young and old, black and white and brown neighbors, a retired school custodian alongside a farmer and a medical resident alongside a retired professor, and children enjoying one another. All of us there playing and laughing and eating and sharing stories and celebrating the season together. It was beautiful to behold.
Saturday night took us to our friends, Dan and Michelle’s home, for an evening of carols + community. More food, more connecting, and an evening that culminated with singing together, including some classic carols as well Dan & Michelle’s original, Hope is Born:
Season pass by
We laugh and we cry
Can winter’s long night
Make room for new life?
We wait our hearts break, we wait our hearts break
Hope is born,
God with us, Emmanuel
The honesty & relatability of those lyrics, and the rare gift of singing together seemed to stir our hearts & spark some joy (as well as a little nostalgia).
Then on Sunday, we continued moving through Advent and our In-the-Making theme. We listened to part of Zechariah’s story from scripture (Luke 1) alongside our friend, Deb’s story. We also hosted a “community gift sharing”. Some shared homemade art and along with it, a piece of themselves. Xiomara hand-crafted two wooden signs, one for The Well and one for Neighborhood Commons (which felt like another kind of sign!). Some brought poetry and offered words of gratitude and inspiration for our community. One family crafted little Lego gifts, including some hearts (see the #BuildtoGive Lego campaign) for everyone. Their adorable 5-year-old son handed them out, letting each community member choose their design.
At the close of our gathering, we lit a candle that represented risk because believing is risky business. It is risky to believe we have something to offer. It is risky to show up in the dark or to show up and share a bit of ourselves. It is risky to show up at all, especially when we’ve been hurt or disappointed or let down more times than we can count.
It’s risky to create the kind of space where we do not control everything, but choose to simply make room:
room for each other,
space for Sprit to stir,
room for the thin line between the Holy & the Here to disappear.
It’s risky, and it’s also the path that tends to lead us toward more Life.