One thing I truly love about community and living in intentional community is that there is no one way to live it. There is not a prescribed rule book to say "THIS is what community is, and only this." There are many beautiful expressions and writings, but ultimately it is a journey by those who live it. Praxis House is lived out in us as individuals and us as community together.
At one point in the common journey, we decided to put in money for community food. As it turns out, that hasn't worked for everyone, so last night at our meeting the issue was brought up. Through discussion, we came up with something new to try. Now for me personally, I could actually go further into the concept of community food and time (for example, sharing all groceries and eating together every night)--but I've learned (and am still learning) it isn't so much about me as it is about hearing everyone.
Instead of a list of groceries to buy, we found some very basics that everyone needs and eats that we will buy, thus reducing the amount of money each person has to contribute to the community money. It will be interesting to see how this works. Our cupboards are full as it is, so one of the aims is to eat the surplus of food--hopefully this can happen while we buy some of our own food. Each of us brought with us into this house food that we had on our own, and much of it (especially condiments) still remains. Therefore, we have to use it up. I can just see it now...a feast of jell-o and muffins (two items we have plenty of). Mmmm...
So, to my original intent of the post: soy milk.
I'm smiling right now because one of the discussions on what consists of a "staple" that everyone is willing to consume was about milk preference. One of us drinks only organic milk, another prefers skim, while still another prefers 2%...and another soy. Would we just buy our own milks? Would we form "milk alliances" on those who could share preferences?
As it turns out, each of us expressed a willingness to consume soy milk. Something came out of this meeting which wasn't expected. We started with an expression of something that didn't work and asked ourselves, "so how can we make this work?"
The answer: soy milk. hehehe. :)
What an adventure this was and is for me.