Co-housing & Intentional Community

"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured." ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

When I read this quote curated by Rev. Read S (the minister at my home church), I was reminded of my all-time favourite daydream: The Urban Dyke Ranch.

Yes, ma'am. The Urban Dyke Ranch (as I lovingly described it to my lesbian friends) would be an intentional community, a chosen family, living together in a co-habitational space right here in the city of Montreal. So, here's how it would go: my idea was to co-purchase a few duplexes somehow, knock down a few shared walls, set a family meeting night, and presto: The Urban Dyke Ranch. Bonus points if we can somehow score a communal backyard!

Back all those years ago, silly thing, I actually thought I had invented co-housing! I had never heard of the idea, outside of hippie communes or off-the-grid queer farms. Enter Acts 4: 32-25. The idea of a shared urban space has left me pondering: what would it take to make the dream a reality?

Recently I was watching a film on Netflix entitled "Happy", which "takes viewers on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy." Spoiler alert: what makes people happy is connections of love and being with other people!​

The Urban Ranch would be more than just a homeowners association or a condominium: the co-habitants would literally live together in the space, each with their own seperate room, suite or floor, as space would allow. The Urban Ranchers would share living spaces, meals together, have fun, support eachother, pitch in cooking and cleaning duties, share taxes, be part of childcare, etc. Literally be a community, and a freely chosen family.

I believe a community of love, support and sharing is what the church aims to be. But sadly church community often starts and ends on Sundays. I wonder if I will ever meet other Christians with whom I can interweave my life with. God willing, I will experience this sometime in my lifetime...

Concerning the ranch, if it's meant to be, I believe I can make my dream a reality. How great would it be to live in community and grow old with those I love... I think it would be, in fact, the greatest living of my faith and humanity.

#commentary #reflections #quotes