Community where I can find it

I am a people person. I thrive off of being surrounded by friends and family. I come alive when I can pour into other people and they in turn into me. Anyone who knows me knows this to be true. And I suppose that's why I love working with students so much. I get to do this all the time. And get paid for it.

Still, there's something to be said for having friends your own age and a community of people who are at the same life stage as you are. I had that at home. I had people who I could go to with any and everything...people I could call up and meet for a meal, a movie, or a Nordstrom fix. I don't have that here in Rome. Yes, I do have Lynda and she's great, but I need someone outside of this place to be with. So, I'm praying for a friend.

I recognized last semester that friendship was missing. What I didn't realize until most recently is that despite not having community...I have sought it out and found it. Of course, I have found it in books and not in real people. Since I was a little girl I have loved to read. I would lock myself in my room and read for hours and hours. Looking back I now see that at those times in my life when I have been lonely or not a part of community my reading has increased. I remember when we moved from WI to AZ sitting in my room all day on a Saturday and reading. I read books over and over again as if I am meeting with old friends. And that's what it is...a meeting of friends. I have found community tucked in the pages of the books that I am reading or have read. I know on some levels that this is not healthy, that I need relationship with real people and not in a fictional time and place, but it strikes me that though we may not have community available we still seek it out and will attempt to find it no matter where or what. There's something comforting in the people I encounter amidst the pages of novels. And for a short time I am not alone. There is a need within me that is being met.

Still, I know myself well enough to know that I cannot live like this. It's not healthy for me. I need human interaction, human connections. After all, this is what we were created for. We were created for community, for relationship. I know that God desires that we find this in Him first and those around us second.

I know I need to cut back on my reading. I need to put my book down and get out into life. Do you have community? Relationship? Or are you filling that God-given need with books, music, shopping, or temporal things that will ultimately be an illusion of the real thing?