I often write about my experiences and relationships living and working at L’arche.  If you’re wondering what L’arche is, and who the people I live with are, this should help.  In L’Arche homes, people who have developmental disabilities and those who come to assist them share life together in a home, just like a family.  I write to articulate these encounters, the daily rhythm of life in community, and the gifts and challenges I discover in small moments.

L’arche Hamilton is one of 200 L’arche communities worldwide, started by Canadian Jean Vanier in 1964. Appalled by the treatment of people with developmental disabilities in institutions, Vanier invited two men with disabilities to live in his home, with the goal of creating home and family life together. What Vanier discovered was the richness of sharing life with people marginalized by society, the gifts his friends had to offer, and the humanizing effect of community, both for those with disabilities and for himself.

I want to tell these stories because I believe they are the stories of people so often ignored by society, whose voices are drowned out by the rat race of success and wealth.  These voices stand along the sidelines, offering us, if we will pause, a different approach to life.  One that I have found to be more holistic, spiritual, and fulfilling than chasing the elusive dream of power, success, wealth, and comfort.  Life in community is uncomfortable at times, has little chance of leading to wealth or fame, and humbles me daily as my weaknesses and flaws are exposed.

But so too am I discovering my unique gifts.  The value of my gentleness, on the occasion it presents itself; my friendship, when it manages to place you before I; the depth of my appreciation and love for the beauty inherent in each one of us.  My hope is that through life here, these things can continue to flourish and drown out the voices of self-centeredness, insecurity and greed in my own life.

So with this post, I begin the search to find the balance between telling you the stories I discover here and sharing the gifts of community, while respecting the dignity and privacy of the individuals with whom I live.

Welcome to the journey.  I think it will probably be bumpy at times, but I hope there will be lots of beauty along the way.

http://www.larche.ca