The beginning of July my roommates moved to Ft. Collins. Because of the work Seth does, it just made more sense for them to be based on the front range. While we understood the reasons for their move, it’s been a little hard on our community. I think that loss can often trigger anger and we all have felt a little anger here and there when we think about the hole they’ve left. We’ve had nights of Stationary Floats (where we all hang out in the raft under the shelter of the boat garage – trust me, it’s more fun than you could imagine… once we even had pizza delivered to the raft… talk about epic) where we’ve missed them so much that we ask Carrie to text us Raft Questions – which she refuses to do if she’s not present.

The fact is that communities often change. I knew that the time of them living with me would be short and therefore I determined to soak up every single minute of it. I feel that I did. I enjoyed every single second of having Seth and Carrie as my roommates and just as the seasons change, a season changed in my life too. And the good thing is that they’re back often enough that we don’t end up missing them too badly.

I think that something really good has come out of their absence too. We’ve been forced to look for new community. We were always so comfortable to be the Fab-Five or the Super-Six (depending on who was around) and it’s been good to be pushed out of that. Recently we’ve seen the addition of some really special people who have changed and brightened our community. We’ve come together for so many meals and (not so) quiet times around the campfire or patio, we’ve played badminton in the dark with a floodlight strapped to the pergola to illuminate our game, we’ve gathered in Caleb and Rickelle’s house for community worship, I’ve made countless bowls of popcorn and served up river pops and beergaritas as fast as I could, and we’ve started to live life together, connecting in new ways.

Something really special is happening and I can’t help but feel that my little group is at the center of it. Rickelle is so good at teaching people to connect to their hearts and I’m starting to see that catch on like wildfire. We aren’t just a bunch of friends who get together and bullshit, we want to know what’s going on in each others lives and hearts. Community feels very safe when you know that everyone cares about and honors who you really are.

As always, things change and I take those blind steps forward trusting that there is a plan bigger than me and that it will be good. I’m seeing the fruition of that in my community. And I think as the months progress, I’ll see more and more good things come from gathering with these people that I love. And even though we all feel a little bit of loss, we know that Seth and Carrie are still part of us and that there will always be a place for them that no one else can fill.