Happy New Year to all our friends, families, and supporters! We're looking forward to great things in 2020, and to telling you all about them. We brought 2019 to a close on Dec. 27 with a Christmas social at Al and Linda's place. It was a particularly auspicious gathering, as it was held exactly two years to the day, and in the same home, that KCC was officially launched in 2017. It's hard to believe how far we've come in just two short years.

If you're just hearing about cohousing for the first time, this website will give you a quick primer on some of the basic elements of a healthy and thriving cohousing community. There is also a wealth of videos on the Interweb about the growing cohousing movement, and the many benefits it has to offer to people of all ages. Here's one we like.

We're pleased with the response we've been getting to our new KCC Coffee Chat which we launched last month. We had a dozen members sign in for our last call, and we talked about everything from current affairs (too crazy) and the holidays (too short), to the number of people who want to join KCC (lots) and the progress we continue to make as a community (very gratifying).

Pati believes in community as much as anyone. Her definition of it has been evolving since her days as an undergrad, but she knows it when she sees it, and she's definitely found it at KCC.

If you're looking for community, we invite you to take a look at ours. You're invited to our next Orientation Session, at 1:00pm on Sunday, Feb. 9 at Activity Haven, 180 Barnardo Avenue in Peterborough (enter through the back door).

After the Orientation, you are also welcome to join us for our monthly business meeting, starting at 3:00pm. And at 5:00pm we invite you to stay as our guests for the potluck dinner.

To find out more, contact us at info@kawarthacommons.ca (add us to your address book), or visit kawarthacommons.ca. We're on Facebook too.

We hope to meet you soon.

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I will try.

Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist

Al and Linda’s Christmas celebration

Al and Linda very kindly invited everybody to their beautiful home just south of Peterborough. As always, there was plenty of good food, fellowship, and conversation.

And of course, when KCC'ers get together, you can always count on a guitar or two to keep things lively.

The remains of the feast...and that means dishes.

And of course there are the requisite Goofy Christmas Sweaters.

Our Members Speak - Pati Beaudoin

I think I’ve been aiming for cohousing ever since moving out of residence at the University of Guelph and realizing I missed the sense of community it offered. I enjoyed sharing a common room where anyone might arrive at anytime, and halls where bumping into people I knew was a normal part of everyday living.

First I tried moving friends into my grad-student slum apartment building in Toronto. That worked pretty well, but common space was restricted to the fire escape. Later, in Nicaragua, I was happy to live in a neighbourhood that had a lot of outdoor common space.

When I moved to Atlanta I lived in a house, and visited friends’ houses. We gathered by appointment, as people seem to do these days, and although I liked the gatherings, I missed living with the likelihood of seeing friends as a normal part of walking from one place to another. I became even more committed to finding some sort of community.

Now that I’ve returned to Canada, I live in a house in Peterborough, where my friends and I again gather by appointment -- but this time it’s to create KCC. I look forward to living in community, where I’ll bump into people I know as a normal part of everyday living. On one hand, the effort it takes to create community in this era seems a little sad; on the other, I have great appreciation for the effort my cohousing buddies and I are making.