A Day in the Life
Every day is a little different, but it tends to start the same - wake-up, have some coffee with Christina, and read/pray before the girls get up. Some days start off smoother than others, and today was a good one! I helped them get going on breakfast and said sayonara. Today was one of Christina’s days to homeschool, so I got to kick-off the workday with a coffee meeting.
I met with Nick, a fellow missional neighbor. We talked about life, politics, neighborhood friends, centering prayer, and camped out on one of his passions—addiction support and recovery. As a medical doctor, he’s done intensive research into what the best practices are and how to employ those principles here at the Village. Every missional brings a beautifully unique set of experiences, interests, personality traits, etc. to the community.
After that, I took my time walking home and had 4-5 casual conversations with neighbors. At any time of day or night, you can find people walking around, so building in some margin between things is really important.
I said hello to the fam, checking in on the girls’ schoolwork and art, and made myself some breakfast. One of the many benefits of working where we live is the ability to work in chunks, which has allowed us to maintain a close family bond while also being available to our neighbors at various times of day.
I sat down to read the rest of a 219-page dissertation about the Community First model as a groundbreaking approach to ending homelessness. It was an insightful analysis of why Community First! Village works so well compared to the dominant nation-wide strategy of Housing First. Building upon the HF view of housing as a human right and foundation for people experiencing homelessness, the CF model insists that trusting relationships and community support is what makes it possible for people to heal and thrive. The author doesn’t live here at the Village, but she made several Austin research trips to observe, interview, and learn the principles of how things came to be.
Next up, I went down to Unity Hall to see if they needed help serving lunches. I talked with several people on my way so I was only able to help on the tail end of it. (Shocker, right?!) Residents are encouraged to grab and go now that we are in the time of Covid, but quite a few choose to stick around chatting with friends and to see if there are extras. This has been an incredible way to see some friends that don’t make it out too often and has helped me quickly learn people’s names.
I went home briefly to refuel before going to my next meeting, then headed out again to chat with William. It was easy to connect with him early on since he is pretty new to the Village as well. William is a Community First staff member who recruits and manages a team of neighbors to clean common areas like kitchens, restrooms, and laundry facilities for dignified income opportunities. He finds jobs for people that match their interests and abilities and pays them by project so that they can go at their own pace. We talked about his role, some transformative conversations he has had with people living on the streets, and my lack of sports skills and knowledge. The missional team has challenged the staff to a kickball game, so we’ll see how desperate our team is for players.
Afterwards, I said hello to my buddy, J.R. who is always out on his front porch. He told me some stories about various cars and SUVs he has owned and his lifelong dream to purchase a Corvette one day. J.R.’s house faces the main loop, so he always knows what is going on in the neighborhood!
At 4 o’clock, I hopped onto a Zoom call with a couple people who are interested in starting a tiny-home community in their city. Part of the reason I wanted to finish reading the dissertation today was to prepare me for this conversation. It was an early exploration into this possibility, and I’m excited to connect them to people who know way more than me. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Then, we had a couple hours of family time. We took a neighborhood stroll armed with dog treats for our favorite furry friends. While the girls spoiled some dogs and rubbed tummies, Christina and I got to chat with their owners. One friend seemed to be having a really off day, and even Kaylynn noticed. Another friend talked about his plants and gardening skills, offering to plant some grass seed for us that does well during the “colder months”. When we continued down the path, he said “Thank you guys. You girls are such a blessing. I really appreciate you all coming by.” So many of our neighbors have estranged relationships with family or maybe never had kids of their own. One of the missional neighbors who has been here since the beginning recently said, “If the only thing you do out here is raise your girls, that would be a success. You don’t know how much joy and healing they bring to our friends.”
Per usual, we had dinner out on our porch and had several waves and hellos as people walked by. Our neighbor across the street asked if she could give the girls a gift. She said she was having a rough day last week after getting some bad news, and Kristin happened to ask her if they could be friends. She said it helped her cheer up and she found a toy that said “Let’s be friends” on it and thought of Kristin!
To close out the day, I built a fire in one of the fire pits and invited neighbors to roast marshmallows with me. A few took me up on the offer. One friend talked about a jelly he stayed up late making last night and another shared that it was her birthday tomorrow.
Around 9 or 9:30, I heard someone yelling from pain and went over to check things out. It seemed serious enough to another neighbor and a missional to call 911, so a few of us waited there to assist and direct the police and paramedics. Strangely enough, this moment ended up being my favorite part of the day…not because of the medical crisis, obviously, but in spite of it.
In the middle of the commotion (and way after our friend was taken to the hospital), so many good conversations occurred. I was able to bring a sense of peace to a stressful situation. I was able to listen to someone tell their story of how they became homeless and what their current life goals were. I was able to talk for quite awhile with a neighbor who had previously ignored my hellos, because he said didn’t know or trust me before now. Another neighbor confided in me about some stuff they had been processing and asked if we could sit down sometime to talk further. All of this happened because I made myself available and happened to be standing in the right spot at the right time. Being a faithful presence means showing up again and again in the everyday moments. That is what family is supposed to do, and it is one of my deepest honors.