I chose to start off 2013 a little differently. For five amazing days, I stayed at the L’Arche House in Maplewood. According to their identity statement, the L’Arche community is a group of people “with and without developmental disabilities sharing life.” L’Arche began in 1964, when a French-Canadian named Jean Vanier began the first L’Arche (from the French word meaning “the ark”) home in Trosly-Breuil, France, and has now grown to 137 communities in 40 countries. The L’Arche house in St. Louis consists of three core members: Jim, Chip and Pauline, along with three live-in assistants, Andy, Agnes and Justin, and the house coordinator, Janet. Together they make up a beautiful community that I got to share life with for a few days.

I don’t think I accomplished anything that most people would consider significant during my time there. What I did do was cook with Andy, do crafts with Pauline, dry dishes with Chip, make fun of Justin with Agnes, laugh with Jim…what I did do was simply live and revel in the nuances of a normal, everyday life. Every day after dinner, Jim picks out a song from the bowl and everyone sings it together. The first day it was “Amazing Grace,” and it was just wonderful to see a bunch of people sitting around a dining table laughing and singing together after a great meal.

I don’t think I have ever felt more welcomed into a community before. It was refreshing to see that such close-knit communities can exist outside of a family or a college dorm. One night, Janet told me that it wasn’t that their community was perfect, but that they were intentional about working toward excellence.

I fell in love with that community. They have a dance coming up on Feb. 1 and monthly community nights where they welcome anyone interested in L’Arche to meet everybody at the house. I encourage all SLU students to check out this gem, tucked away in Maplewood.