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I was born and raised in Texas. As were my parents, their parents, and theirs. Back and back into the early Anglo-Texas heat and dust. All told, I'm a seventh generation Texan.
It kinda feels like home, I guess.
We Texans have a reputation, I know. Loud and proud of our big hats and big hair. Eating Bar-B-Q while living alone on the range and driving a pickup truck, of course. And independent. Fiercely so, as the saying goes. Some of all this might actually be true.
But when I reflect on the history and cultural background of our state, I see a slightly different image. I picture a map dotted with small towns and settlements spread out and separated by vast distances. The miles between and the harshness of the land caused early communities to become self-reliant; meaning that the people in these communities relied on one another.
The towns, for the most part, provided what the individuals needed but could not do for themselves. Not every town had a doctor, for example, but they all had healers of whatever stripe: midwives, curanderos, or folk remedies. When things went wrong, these people turned to their own neighbors for help, for support, and succor. The same went for most aspects of life: food, shelter, protection, and company.
This is the idea of Texas that resonates with me when I look forward to living in cohousing – of being in a place where neighbors are more than just the people who live on my same street. I look to a time and place where we, who were once strangers, will come to live and gather ourselves into a community that becomes an adoptive branch of all our families. A place where we live with each other, not just next to each other, and a place where our community lives complement our private homes. This is the vision we are working towards. We are building our community now and will start to build our homes in the coming year. It promises to be an interesting journey.
If this vision appeals to you, come check us out. We expect to be around for a good long while.