Can’t put a dollar-value on community

The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food. – Dean Ornish

Last year our first “Christmas Market” was the day after we arrived in Poland, when we took a tram to the Kazimierz district of Krakow (see “Our First Christmas Market“) and I discovered both local crafts and the warming qualities of mulled wine.

This year we have started a little earlier, with this weekend’s delightful “Holiday Market” out at Old Town Farm – Susan and Jay Vick’s classic early American home.

Saturday greeted us with a beautiful morning, full with sunshine and good cheer. The place was hopping with vendors, artists, crafters and visitors taking up every inch of parking and – hopefully – donating generously to the Edgecombe County Animal Shelter.

Rebekah and I have been out to Old Town Farm several times now, and the hospitality extended at the Vicks’ beautiful home is always unswervingly gracious.

It’s all about community:

While events like this doubtless generate sales and interest for vendors, the most important thing they achieve is the strengthening of relationships. Rebekah and I wandered around meeting new people, talking with the good folk we already knew, admiring the goods on display and investing ourselves a little more in this beautiful community.

There is a lot of talk nowadays about grocery prices, inflation, general affordability and so much more – and the conversation is absolutely important. What is even more consequential, however, is not so much our dollar-conscious cost of living as our people-centric quality of living.

– where everything we value comes together

Rebekah and I have our faith, we enjoy our friends, we live in this amazing community and we are part of a church family where everything we value comes together.

This, friends, is top-quality living.