Communities

I am overdue to do the writing I need to do to say what I want to say to Herb. But I will set that seed in fertile soil. We are blessed (there is no other word for it), not only in this Middletown community that we love, but in the many communities of our lives - geographic, intellectual and most clearly emotional.

We invited our friends "from away" to come last night for a low-key gathering, so that we could spend a little time with those we aren't likely to have much time with tonight or in the near future. There were many missing; some will be here today for the wedding, and some will just be sorely missed, but we sat around tables in the chilly evening, grazing under the tent that Patty and Matt put up for us in the few minutes of sun earlier in the day. Herb and I were closely tended by those we love, with offers of food and laughter...and love.

Herb's friend Neoma, and now mine, was told that she should take some time to move to the periphery at her wedding and watch. While I did fairly little at the periphery yesterday, I did watch. And this was a day of bringing together friends not only to celebrate this "us," but those we love.

I saw what I have always believed--that loving people can make a whole still stronger than its many parts. We are stronger as a couple--that much is clear. But I think that friendships were forged last night, and perhaps more.

We are many times, many times, blessed that each of you is in our lives;   that we are part of these communities is "home."