Chasing Summerset

Life is full of so many beautiful things. Sometimes they are elements of fiction, but the finest elements always come from reality. They stick with more than any of the fictional concepts I treasure. This is mainly because they are examples of times something actually worked out the way it was meant to be. Those are the beautiful snap shots, that inspire a replication on my own life’s canvas.

One of these concepts is to live in beautiful community. A community where people are honest about their thoughts and feelings. A place where life doesn’t feel so lonely, because you have awesome and diverse people invested in your life. I’m a girl who loves her bubble to be spacey and free. I even have my own rock shows in the shower. Yet, I don’t ever want to live alone. 

It’s scary to get lost in the daydreams of sanctuary. Hence why we have roommates. They also are helpful when it comes time to pay rent.

The best example I’ve read about was in a Donald Miller book. Don talks about a place called Graceland. It was a house that he shared with some friends. They had some ups and some downs, but mostly they simply lived life! They were invested in each others life. That’s always been a dream of mine. It’s one I have chased actively. Unfortunately, community is a two way relationship, which is not always the priority of those I’ve wished to share it with. It’s happened in various attempts to form strong community, but it’s especially failed in the roommate department. I’ve had bad roommates, decent ones, and even ones who were barely around. I’ve come close to what I’ve been looking for when I lived in an apartment with 5 other girls. It was fun, but not a permanent situation. We scattered across the country, where I lives still keep in touch, but my heart craves for an even deeper taste of what I drank in that spring. 

I call this concept of live-in-community, Summerset. I don’t know if I got the name from another house Don had lived in, or maybe it was from another example I admired. I have no idea. I’ve been chasing the dream of Summerset for so long, that I can’t remember where the name of safety came from.

My current situation is filled with life transitions into a new stage in the human evolution. It’s called growing up, and that doesn’t leave people a lot of time to form bonds and invest in each other. I go days and even weeks without seeing my house bud. Sometimes I feel we are nothing, but ghost to one another. Who are merely leaving behind signs of our activity and presence for the other to discover.

Our extra bedroom is now a home.

Our little house feels a little warmer and a lot more connected, ever since we made more space in the fridge. I feel closer to Summerset than I’ve been in a long time. Once I am done counting my blessings, I will have to remember where this name came from.