You’ve been there before. That place at a friend or family member’s home where everyone gathers. The spot in their house where conversation flows, where secrets are shared, and where life is lived in community.
For some, it’s a large front porch. Guests sit in the old wood rocking chairs passed down from grandma, chatting until the sun goes down-or until the iced tea runs out. They watch the street and comment on the passerby’s, perhaps waving to neighbors and inviting them up the stairs to join the conversation. Children sit on the swing hanging from the rafters, climbing off and on, over and over again.
Or maybe it’s the kitchen, where guests gather on bar stools or stand nearby while the host prepares a meal. Friends catch up on one another’s lives around a counter lined with finger foods-chips and salsa, the much-loved layered dip your friend always makes, cut up veggies, and maybe a glass of wine.
For us, it’s our back porch. We don’t have a huge house for entertaining, but with the back sliding doors opened wide, the porch becomes another room of the house. It’s there where our life has been lived in community these past ten years.
Holidays and birthdays are celebrated out there on the porch. Kids jump and splash in the pool while adults sit nearby and talk. Bible studies, small groups, and prayer meetings have been held there as well. It was at the tile topped table where a new friend turned to me and said, “I can see it in your eyes. You’ve been there too.” Life stories were shared; the joys and pains of life passed around the table like Thanksgiving’s bowl of mashed potatoes.
Children have grown up there on our porch. First, babies splashing in the pool’s sun deck, then they were toddlers pushing toys around the porch, and now they are elementary students riding scooters around the pool like it’s a race track. Where mommies once gathered for play group to talk about baby’s sleep schedule and first attempts at crawling, we now talk about the kid’s sports, schools, and hobbies.
There’s the annual Christmas party, where everyone gathers out on the porch to select a white elephant gift. We all laugh as the gifts are stolen and then stolen again. The pool glows in the darkness from the underwater lights. If it’s a S. Florida style December, the fire pit is roaring and the standing heater is lit.
Welcomes and goodbye’s, baby showers and ‘get to know new church member’ meals, have all occurred on this concrete surface. Broken arms, burnt hands, and snake bites have happened here too. Laughter, tears, stories, love, bitterness, sadness, and fear, have all been poured out over the years. With no protection overhead than a dome-shaped screen, the sun and moon have both silently witnessed all these events. The coastal breezes have captured all the shouts of laughter, carrying them far away.
Can a place or a structure facilitate life? Can a simple back porch with tables and chairs, a pool, and kids toys scattered about, gestate and give birth to friendship, love, knowledge, hope, faith, and healing? Or is it not the place, but the people gathered?
I think maybe it is both. The place provides the opportunity and is merely a host. The people provide the seeds to begin friendships which they then nurture over time. A place with an open door provides the potential, but it’s the open and willing hearts of the people where friendships form, stories are shared, and lives are changed. Community can happen anywhere as long as there are people willing to join it.
Where is that place for you?
“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:35
Source: Lisa Tarplee Photography
Counting graces in community (#1733-1748):
Our community who gathers at our place
Memories made and relationships nurtured
Ten years in our home
A week of doctor’s visits for me, getting them out of the way before homeschool starts again
Organizing school room, unpacking and going through new curriculum
His strength in my weakness
Planning a trip with the boys to San Diego this fall
Lessons learned through parenting
Ian insisting on swimming in his Star Wars underwear instead of swim shorts:) “I’m an underwear swimmer, Mom.”
Saturday morning spent sitting in the pool reading
Receiving an email from the editor of Proverbs 31 Women’s Magazine informing me that an article of mine will be published in their January 2013 magazine
Having my husband’s boss over for dinner
Simply laughing that our new dryer doesn’t work either!
My husband talking my son through an emotional event via Skype
Linking up with my friends at:
Why does this post make me all emotional?
I love your porch and the community lived out there!
Me too:) Community is an amazing and powerful thing. It grows us and shapes us. So glad to be a part of it.
We had a back porch just like that when I was growing up. Pool and all. I keep telling my dad he needs to build one at the new house to build those same memories with his grandchildren. I miss it.
Mary Beth
Memories are powerful motivators:) And I have many memories on our porch. I know my kids do as well. Thanks for stopping by!
Woo-hoo! Congrats on the article!
And, yes, we have a sun room like that where we live during the summer, and where we gather around the Christmas tree.
I just left a comment on Laura’s post, about how God created us body, mind, and soul; and he meets us in each of these places. He created us as physical bodies where we inhabit physical spaces-home, church, creation; and in these physical spaces we are able to comprehend something of his goodness.
Great post!
Thanks, Nancy! Yes, and He has met me many times in the midst of community on our porch. So thankful for the ways He connects and communes. Blessings!
What a beautiful post! All the stories of community and sharing and just being with others - it sounds so wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks! I think we all have community stories like that of places and people who have walked alongside us in life. So glad you stopped by!
Please tell me you let him wear the underwear!! Hilarious and Awesome and I love him!!
And SOOOOOOOOO Congrats on the article… God has big plans friend, BIG!!!
Loved your list as always!
Of course I did! And I recorded him swimming in them, for one day in the future:)
your heart welcoming those into your home is what makes fellowship sweet…such sweet pictures…they reflect your heart. blessings to you…i saw you comment…lifted you in prayer…to find an abiding place…letting Him lead and leaving the rest behind. blessings to you~
Oh, thank you for your prayers! It means so much to me! Your words are always and encouragement and such a ministry to my heart. Blessings to you!
You have a lovely gathering place! We gather on our front porch at times and at other times in our big back yard. I remember when I was little, all the family gathering on grandma and grandps’s big porch, with someone always playing the guitar and people singing. I still hear the crickets and cicadas as the dusky night would come and can feel the cooler air as the sun goes down. Good memories:)
Isn’t is amazing how deep the memories are seared in our heart? Thanks for visiting!
ah….an upcoming post planned….it’s our campfire! the most incredible conversations….
great pics here of some happy memories…
thank you for linking up with me again!
Blessings!
Michy
I love campfires! Smores and a chill in the air. Looking forward to reading it:)
Now I really wanna come over
So proud of you for the article being published! Yay! praise God. . . can’t wait to read it!
Beautiful post as always, friend.
Thanks, Nikki. And your are invited any time!
Such a nice post.
Thanks, Denise!
Beautiful, Christina! I love all the memories I have from such gatherings. I have lots of back porch and congregating in the kitchen memories too! Thanks for linking up!
Memories are sweet aren’t they? They keep traditions alive and hearts knit together. Blessings!
You are a talented writer friend. I want to come visit you and hang out on your back porch.
Blessings~
Shari
Anytime! We are always up for a party:)
Sweet post!! The back porch is so inviting. Wish it was closer to Dallas:))
Thank you…
I imagine the porches in Texas are much bigger:) Thanks for stopping by, Stefanie!
Hahaha! Yes, ma’am:)))
We have a screened in back porch too. A gathering place for lots of silliness and laughter. Our cottage has a screened gazebo where lots of conversations ensue and memories are born. So yes, its the people and the place. Congrats on the article feature in January, I know how exciting that is.
We need silliness and laughter, gatherings and memories. They are so important to our feeling connected with one another. And thanks for the congratulations!
We live on property in the middle of the FL country — we don’t have neighbors, really. At least none you can see from any point on our land. But still my desire is to open my home and be a blessing and be in community - in real life. Thank you for sharing this post. It will purpose to invite others so that we can make beautiful memories like this. Maybe once a month or something
With a big yard, you can do so many fun things! It’s great to create a place where your children’s friends want to come to and look forward to coming to. We don’t consider it our house, it’s everyone’s house:) Blessings!
I LOVE this post! After being on vacation down South last week, I got to see how awesome porches are!