Friendsgiving | Community Connection | Oregon Photographer
Community Connection
When I get a chance to be a part of something that I believe in and love what they are doing, I can't help but talk about it. It also helps that I can do what I love and be apart of it in that way as well. A few weeks back, I had the privilege of taking pictures for a local community dinner put on my Rooted Event Co. This was the third dinner that I have been able to attend. I talked about my first experience a while back. If you missed that, check it out here. They are working hard on building a place for community connection to happen. Having been in The Dalles for two years, I have found making connections hard. Maybe this is because it is the first time in my adult life that I've had to start over in a new area or maybe it is because The Dalles is a hard community to get plugged into.Either way, I think it is important to talk about why building community with those you live around is important. When you are in a community, you feel valued, loved and wanted. Even those that don't like to be around people need this. They need to feel as though they are apart of something. Having community does just that.
The Snowball Effect
Attending our first Rooted Table dinner was the beginning of building a community connection for me and my little family. After having lived in The Dalles at that point for almost a year and a half, we had only a few connections. And I'm talking more about people that we can do life with on a daily basis. To me and my family, that means more people our age and maybe those with kids closer to our sons age.Now meeting a few couples at that first dinner sparked a desire in me to reach out to them. With summer starting and that whole camping and traveling thing, reaching out got away from me. I finally did it and made it happen towards the end of the summer. It has snowballed from there. We've had multiple couples from this community over for dinner. We are reaching out and continuing to get together with others. Our old lifestyle of getting together with someone at least once a week as been happening again. We missed it.The community connections are happening and we couldn't be more thrilled.It's all because we attended a community dinner that puts you around a table with people from all different walks of life. You don't have to have the same beliefs or walks of life to have a good time or to make connections. God has called us to love everyone. That is exactly what I want to be doing. I am grateful to Rooted for making a place to make new connections. I can't wait to see where these dinners take this community and for the community connections that will continue to happen.
How do you connect?
Tell me the ways you connect with your community in the comments below? How have you found a new tribe and friends in a new place? Church has done this for us a little, but we chose a church outside of our community. We love it, but it has made it harder to connect with people in our own town. My photography business has helped me a lot in this way as well. I've been able to spend time running around fields and hillsides with couples and getting to know them in between all of that. I love learning about people and getting to know who they are.
