back from vacation

It's always nice to take off for a few days, well maybe more than a few days but the concept is the same.
What I enjoyed most about my vacation is what I also miss the most while I was on vacation.
Community.
Yeah it was community. I enjoyed being in community while on vacation. My community was much smaller than what I experienced every day in my normal life, but it was a community nonetheless. I interacted and make decisions regarding my time, money, and activity based on my relationship with three other people.
As always the most important person in my local community is my wife. I know that for some that may sound corny but for me it has always been true that my wife and before that as my girlfriend she has always been my best friend. Last year we were married longer than either one of us had been single, and we have been together more than half of our lives. The other two people on this vacation where another couple that enjoy being with. It's kind of weird because we actually don't see them very often (maybe once a year) and yet we seem to work very well as two couples on vacation.
So I enjoyed the community I was a part of, but I missed the community I left behind.

The community I left behind while on vacation is a much larger group. Of course still the most important person is my wife, but she was with me. I left behind my sons and daughter which involve a community within my house of interactions, reactions, occasional drama, and ample opportunity for awesome communication.
I also left community of my neighborhood, which involves my next-door neighbors, a single guy across the street, a very sweet old couple on the other side, and a general awareness of children and families all around.
I also left the community that meets where I work at my church. This is a huge community that involves dozens of students, a large number of families and are connected to the students, the volunteers that help me work with the students, a large number of people that meet for worship on Sunday morning, the pastor and my coworkers.
So while I was gone on vacation I joined a small community but I greatly missed the larger community that I get to interact with a daily basis. It's probably one of the reasons why I enjoy networking on the web. Even if I do not comment and interact with everyone, just being aware of people's movements gives me a sense of connection, of social networking and it brings a level of enjoyment to my day.

I do believe we were all made for community. I also think as I've stated before in other blogs that within our Western culture we disturbed community and emphasized individualism. I believe individualism made an awful lot of people rich but I believe that community is what makes an awful lot of people happy.

As I know many of you probably have plans to travel over the next few months. Whether it's for weddings, vacation, or some sort of combination of events that allows you to be out of your normal routine and places. I hope that while you're gone you get the opportunity to live in community, but I also hope you missed the community that you are not with.