"Are you feeling okay?" Brianna looked across the room at Tanner with concern in her eyes.
"Yes. I just need to declutter my life and simplify my collection of books. If I get rid of some books there will be room for all my books to have a home on a shelf. I need to simplify to create space to simply live." Tanner explained looking and feeling some what down.
It has been a little over 3 whole weeks of marriage for us here on Vernedale drive and we have had quite an adventure together. From learning how to have an egalitarian marriage and not falling into stereotypical "gender roles" to buying our first vehicle together without having to finance it to overall just learning how to keep a joint budget and all the other complexities of an adventurous new marriage.
Home is the key here. We both have been craving the feeling of home. Sure we feel at home with each other, but this was different. We were craving a community. Community that was separate from our ministries. Community that was laid back. Community that was like my old apartment back in our college years.
During this past month we have spent most of our time outside of work exclusively with each other. It's been a lot of fun, but we have both slowly been realizing how much we need consistent people within our lives. How much we need to be able to just goof off with others.
So on this past evening we decided to try something new. We went to the next town over and signed up for our first lesson of square dancing. We had seen signs for these lessons throughout the week and had heard that the first two lessons were free so we figured we could give it a try.
As we entered the small community center and looked around we saw many couples that were significantly older than us. We looked to be the youngest in the room and to all of them we looked as if we were still in high school. We hesitantly walked over to a square that was missing two people and began to follow the directions. As time progressed we started picking up the moves and becoming more comfortable with the pace of things. As we warmed up to the group more we slowly began talking with many of them and sharing our stories of why we were here and where we came from.
By the end of the night we walked out of the center excited and filled with endorphins from all our laughter and dancing. We immediately looked at each other and insisted we return for the remaining 9 weeks of lessons and that we invite as many friends as we can. The entire car ride back we made a list of people to invite. We were beginning to feel this sense of community we were craving in this little community center where we were only known as the "young couple at square dancing practice."
We had found our third space where we can simply live and invite others to join us. We found community in a little community center one town over from us. It is very fitting that it would happen this way.
-Brianna and Tanner Cooper-Risser
