Massachusetts Weekend

Inside the Common House


Kathy and Randy's House (right side)


The Common House


The Village

This last weekend we went up to (actually more like over to) Massachusetts for our old friend (she is 40) Kathy's birthday. She and her husband Randy and their blended family of 5 children live in an Intentional Community there. This community consists of 28 homes built on seven acres. Altogether the community owns quite a bit more acreage than that.

The layout of the houses as well as the architecture kind of feels like an old village. All the cars are parked in a lot outside of the community, so there is only foot traffic on the path. In the center of this village is a common house, which has a kitchen, fireplace, spare bedroom, and enough space for a pretty big gathering.

I am sure there are challenges that go along with this sort of community, but it sounds like the good aspects really outweigh the bad. Kathy said that there were lots of opportunities for the community to work together and help each other out when it was needed. It kind of sounded to me like the kind of co-operation that you hear about from old sources on rural life and still exists to a certain degree now.