It is cold tonight..with stars sprinkled across the Universe as spilled sugar. I went for a late night walk bundled up in everything available in my closet. It was so stunning that I could hardly pull myself in...but a glass of wine beckoned me back inside with a latching of the door.

I have new neighbors. The house next door has been dark and quiet for several months and is tonight rented to a family with four boys. I have been keeping an eye on the U-Haul and the boys hauling boxes and furniture into the house on the corner. I feel like a little girl peaking through the curtains of my own house to catch a glimpse of the new folks. My neighbors. This much I know. Last night I was walking at midnight and as I passed their house I could see candles had been gathered and were lit on the dining room table...it was a heartwarming scene on a cold winter night. Welcome.

In the midst of a busy week filled with theatre and storytelling gigs and rehearsal for The Vagina Monologues (programs and radio shows as well!!) I still had time to think....Philip sent me the most beautiful CD with the song Our Town on it. When I am home working, I play it over and over...I can do that with songs. Once I listened to Achy, Breaky Heart all the way to Indianapolis!

This song is so enchanting that I can't stop listening...it is about a small town in which you know everyone and the sadness and joys that a small town brings. It is about Community. My own communities spin in and around my thoughts on such a cold night as this one. My newest community is the wonderful cast of women in the show. We have come together for a common cause of producing a show...each with a different reason. We range in age from 20 to 71....and we have become community. We even held a pot luck supper this week with a rehearsal! I find my thoughts of the show woven into their personal lives....I know this, we will all miss each other after next week end.

I think about my book club community, my teaching community, my neighborhood community, my storytelling community..... my family community. All are different, all add a strong component to my life. I think of Philip's community...how my life changes when I visit with him and he pulls me into the flow of his life and the strength of his island community.

Maybe that is all we have after all? Just the folks in our lives who come and go and touch us in each and every way. There is an older woman at the end of my street that walks to church every Sunday morning...no matter what the weather. Rachael is always at her coffeeshop ready to share stories...my car pooling buddy, Erin, and I have built our small community for the early morning commutes...we are at school before we leave the driveway.

Of course, Aaron and Karen and the boys show up in my life every few days to share dinner and stories.

Here are some great definitions of community by Webster: (1) a unified body of individuals (2) people with a common interest (3) an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (4) social activity.

It's late and a long week ahead of me...the cold is deep...double blanket deep and woolen socks deep. My old windows are frosted over with winter (except where I rubbed a clean spot for spying on the new neighbors) so it's time to close the door on this Sunday. I think we, too, are a community...of words and thoughts and good wishes...enough to get through another week. Henry Glassie in his introduction to Irish Folk Tales once wrote, "....the hearth was warm, the stories were short...but enough so that when we see each other in the morning we will look back and say it was a good night."

Happy Birthday to my brother, Scott, in Afghanistan....good wishes are sent your way over these thousands of miles.

To my friends and family, enjoy your communities these week...wherever you are...whatever you do.

Love to all,
Lou Ann