"Live in Peace" - The Community I Call Home

          Covering 70 acres of the West side of the bike-friendly college town, Davis, CA, is a enchanting neighborhood called Village Homes. But Village Homes is so much more than just a neighborhood, because it is also the foundation of a strong and close-knit community. I feel lucky to say that I am a part of the vibrant community of Village Homes residents. Our neighborhood was created nearly 40 years ago with the hopes of fostering true relationships between neighbors and also supporting conservation and sustainability. When I look at our community today, I believe that we are the product of those intentions and that we continue to pursue even greater fulfillment of them everyday.

A Village Homes common area
(Taken from Village Homes website)

When I was kid, I thought everyone walked out of their house, saw their neighbor, Peggy, from a few houses over, and waved like crazy, while yelling, “Hi Peggy!” And I assumed that as any person walked down the paths of their neighborhood while eating fruit picked directly from the trees above them, they would stop to talk to their friend Stephanie and her mom, Lacy, who lived a couple common areas over. And it only seemed natural to me that all kids’ best friends lived just a quick sprint across a green belt. Of course, by the time I’d finished a few years of elementary school, I had realized that these experiences were not shared by my classmates who didn’t live in Village Homes. It was a hard realization for me to wrap my head around. Who are your neighbors if they aren’t your friends?

There is no official title for the residents of Village Homes, but my friends and I often call members of our community Village Homes Peeps and occasionally, just Village Homies. To me these unofficial names are representative of our community’s culture, which is one of humor and authenticity. 

We laugh a lot and have tons of fun in Village Homes. For example, every Sunday at 6pm throughout the months of Day Light Savings Time, we gather for a potluck on the Little Green, a field of grass toward the North end of the neighborhood. We sit in a circle, stuff ourselves with delicious food, and chat and laugh. There are lots of conversations going on at once, but when Alicia—or any one of us younger folks—starts cracking up about Christine’s—or anyone’s—stinky fart, everyone turns to smile at her, and soon, the whole circle is giggling. After my friends and I have finished eating, we often play games like Hide-and-Seek Tag or Apples-to-Apples or swim at the Village Homes pool for the rest of the evening. Many of the adults, a term I’m using to mean anyone who feels too mature to play games, sit in their lawn chairs and talk until darkness comes. It’s undeniable that Village Homes Peeps enjoy each other’s company and that our shared appreciation of humor is a big part of that. 

Some Village Homes kids at a Sunday night potluck
circa 2005
*Can you find 12 year old Shira?*

Some Village Homes kids at a potluck in 2012
*Do you see any of the same kids from above?*

Although I’ve been a part of many communities in my life, I’ve never belonged to one that naturally encouraged a culture of authenticity like the Village Homes community does. When I was a teenager, my friends and I noticed that a lot of the families in our neighborhood struggled with mental illness, physical illness, family issues, and/or a variety of other problems. I remember us joking, “Man, there must be something in the water here!” But what I’ve come to realize is that the difference in Village Homes wasn’t and isn’t the number of families facing difficulties, it was and is the fact that we actually know what our neighbors are going through. In our community, we share our problems with each other. We support each other during our hardships. Like when Rachel had a suicide attempt when she was 14, Joy, a mother of two young girls who lived down the street and had seen the ambulance, visited her in the ER and sat with her there for several hours. In other neighborhoods and many other communities, an event such as this would have been carefully covered up, so that no one could see Rachel’s and her family’s pain. There is no doubt that this authenticity makes us stronger both as individuals and as a community.

Picture I painted in 2012 from a Village Homes t-shirt

All in all, Village Homes Peeps are awesome, and the community we’ve built is truly special. Of course, our community isn’t perfect. Sometimes people gossip or have conflicts with each other. Sometimes people don’t want to be a part of the community aspect of our neighborhood and start taking their frustrations out on the rest of us. Sometimes a community member is conservative, and they don't appreciate that everyone else is super liberal. (To be honest, I haven’t seen that happen, but I imagine it probably has. I acknowledge that it would probably be very unnerving to share conservative opinions in Village Homes.) Sometimes, people get angry when kids who live in a different common area pick fruit off of the trees in their common areas. (We’re technically not supposed to pick fruit off of common areas that aren’t our own, but we all do it anyway.) And sometimes people don’t get to eat any of the delicious cherries from the trees next to Bombadil Lane, because outsiders came the moment the cherries ripened and picked them all in order to sell them. (This is illegal. And really, really irritating.) But, despite those (and a few other) flaws of the Village Homes community, I feel extremely blessed to have this community backing me up. And although I don’t live in Village Homes anymore, Village Homes will always be my home, and Village Homes Peeps will always be my community. I will always be welcomed back to this place of peace. 

View of part of the Big Green and the Village Homes Community Center,
which is also the home of the preschool I attended, Rivendell Nursery School
(Taken from Village Homes website) 

*If you're interested in learning more about Village Homes, the website is: http://www.villagehomesdavis.org