My Strange Love

I am officially in Omaha, Nebraska.  I am living with two other individuals, who are participating in the same discernment process as me.  We will be living simply as well as in an intentional community together, which means we basically share everything.  We each have our own room, but the bathroom and the food stipend are shared.  In regards to food, we will grocery shop and cook together, and this is truly brilliant.    

Confession, I have a problem.  I love grocery stores, there it is.  Truly, I could spend hours perusing the aisles, particularly of Whole Foods.  Weird, I know, but love makes you do strange things.  What is strange about loving grocery stores?  I love Whole Foods so much that I worked there this summer as a barista at the coffee bar in the specialty foods department.  The department consists of coffee, cheese, wine, and beer so why wouldn't you want to work there.  So where did we go grocery shopping first, WHOLE FOODS of course!  It is different.  This Whole Foods has a WINE AND CHEESE BAR!!!  Maybe some change is good.

Buildings and ideas can be replicated, but the people and relationships you make in an establishment can never be replaced.  The Whole Foods family that I had this summer, embraced my goofiness and my strange love of grocery stores, and each person I worked with is truly one of a kind.  It is a different community that I am proud to be a part of.  I miss them dearly and I can't thank them enough.  My Whole Foods family is always in my thoughts and prayers.  

The communities that accept all, support each other, and have open communication within the community that grow, achieve their goals, and change the world in their own way.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  Whether it be at Whole Foods or in Omaha, it is this community that enables the individual to grow and succeed.