Sharing Spaces/Sharing Lives

As discussed in a previous post, part of the military life to me (and what makes any good community) is taking care of one's own. While I haven't seen this occur within our neighborhood per se, I did describe the generosity of several others in helping my husband and I set up home. I think I also mentioned how part of me feels that God has us here as a means to help support and provide for others who may need it. And since that realization we have had several opportunities to put it into practice.

We currently have another couple living with us. They just recently got legally married and were put on the post housing wait list for their own home with an estimated wait time of six to eight weeks. Until the home would become available they had planned to stay mainly in the barracks but also spend some time here. However the day that she arrived on post, the Army also issued her husband a roommate for his barracks room, so the two of them are living here with us until their own home is available. Luckily for all of us, we had plenty of space for them to join us and I'm pretty sure my hubby's been glad that I've had something else to occupy my time during the days.

Sharing the space has been going fine, although I'm trying really hard to not let my old organizational nature get the best of me. Since I've been occupying my time mainly by cleaning and organizing, my preference has gone back to the days when I really liked things to be just so. However it's got to be an adjustment for both of them living in our home, especially with many of the lifestyle choices that my husband and I do make. I've been impressed with both of their willingness to recycle and conform to some of our "funnier" ways (aka washing out plastic sandwich bags, etc), and rather appreciate that they don't seem annoyed when I do go around turning off lights and moving more items into the recycling. Lately, I can't help but wonder if some of these funny ways of living might stick and be implemented in their own home, but we'll just have to wait and see. It's a hard place to be--not wanting to impose your beliefs and choices onto someone else, yet also wanting them to understand and implement those practices for good.

In the last month or so we've had quite a few individuals over for dinner or BBQing, as we'd really like to have our home be a comfortable and open place for many others in my husband's unit to enjoy. Last evening we all had another couple over for the first time, who also are fairly recently married and newish (May) to the area. Sometimes I feel quite like the old wife amongst the 19-21 year old wives, but I can't help but think there is a reason for this too. Many of the other wives also spend most of their days sitting at home, alone, without any real resources or involvement on post, so the gal who is currently staying with us and I are attempting to pool together some of the wives to see if we can get some support started. If there's one thing I'm learning from my observations around here, happier wives lead to happier marriages which also, of course, lead to happier husbands.

In other news, I have been longing for many Oregon-esq things lately. Mainly being produce, sea breeze, access to a variety of natural products, like-minded individuals, and of course my family and friends (who also tend to fall into that like-minded category). The highlight of my afternoon on Thursday was having a 5 minute conversation with another wife in the on-post store about which water filter was better and why. To actually converse with another person who cares about these issues, takes steps to protect her family's health, and appeared worried about the local pollution....I seriously wanted to take her by the hand and ask her right then and there to be my new best friend! (I hesitated cause a) I didn't want her to think I'd gone crazy and b) she appeared at least 15 years older than me and with 4 kids in tow.) However I'm hopeful that maybe, just maybe there will be others like her at some point and I'm encouraged to even run into one somewhat like-minded individual at this point!

And with that I will close this posting for now. Still working on the volunteer/job thing. At this point, I think almost any job would be worthwhile just so I'm contributing something and utilizing the gifts that I do have to give. Hope everyone has been enjoying a wonderful weekend!