Lately I've been thinking about community and what it really mean. The dictionary has several definitions of community, : n. 1. A group of people living in the same locality 2. A social group or class having common interests. 3. Similarity or identity. 4. Society as a whole 5. Ecology 6. Common possessions or participation ( Latin: from the root word common.)

I live in a small rural community. I can see cows from my back yard and crops growing around our small patch of earth. I can go out my front door and smell the sweet aroma of "misty morning manure " from the nearby fields being prepared for planting.

We don't have a Floyd's Barber Shop but most of the local color and gossip can be picked up from our only gas station/ pizza parlor/ grocery store. People cash their pay checks there especially if the banks are closed and as you pass the station a billboard announces local birthdays .

As close as people are here. It's still not the close community I find on the internet.

I know the ladies at my church were some what taken back when I asked for prayer for my friend , her dad is having open heart surgery today. As they were compiling their prayer list they asked the person's name. (Sheepishly I had to admit I only knew her as Yellow Rose, and I had never really met her, but I probably know more about her and her family than I know about the ladies in my Bible Study that I meet with on a weekly basis.)

I have rejoiced in everything from weight loss, a prodigal child returning home, a successful visit at the dentist, a birth, and soldiers returning home without ever having stepped out my front door. I have prayed for people I've never met , but meet daily over my favorite cup of coffee, wearing my bunny slippers and ratty robe.

I have cried over posts, laughed and hooted over funny situations in your life and generally felt like a welcomed voyeur. Let me be the first to tell you.....your lives are much better than "Reality TV" with all its contrived situations and forced relationships.

Mr. Wonderful once asked me, "What would you do in that situation?" This question usually came up as we were watching some "made for TV movie" where the heroine is shooting the rapids with escaped convicts that are holding her only child as captive. "Die in the first 15 minutes leaving you to rescue our child," is my pat answer. Now think about it.....when would I ever be in that situation!

But now I have you and your lives are much more interesting. I am a vetran of potty training. I know first aid. I know what it is like to try something and not succeed. I cry purple puddles over your heartaches and can be your biggest cheerleader. I've been exposed to some great receipes, powerful poetry, awesome artwork and some really outrageous rants.

So welcome to the community. I'm the "Welcome Wagon" . I'll be over tomorrow morning. You'll recognize me by my favorite coffee mug, bunny slippers and ratty robe.