What Art House Means to Me
By Guy Delcambre
What does AHD mean to me?
A man without community is more than a man without friends; he is a man void of peers, and structure. Left alone to fend and find our way through life, we quickly make a mess of things and tangle in the inconsequential and, all things progressive and given to growth, diminish in the small circle of ourselves. A man with friends is good, but a man belonging to a community of people who know him, a result of an exchange of relationship, is life changing in the way of shaping, forming and grooming him, not merely for the better, but to optimize him to live fully.
All the more for the creative soul, expressive yet often muted by self-doubt and loneliness. Community found me keystroke stuttering, pen shuffling and lost in a dream of creativity. I hadn’t earned a literature degree nor could I even confess to avid reading habits. Only the audacious pressing to pen words hanging in my head like pictures taped to a wall, escorted me into a world of words. Early morning jaunts into stories and late evenings lost in my journal chronicling the journey mired in secret, I made my way as a writer, but not until my first public admittance of myself as writer did I permit myself to transcend creativity as hobby to creativity as life. Enter Art House Dallas. The community I discovered, perhaps stated more accurately, the community which found me, infused more than courage into my go as a writer; the community of Art House Dallas created a place in my life where creativity was prima facie, accepted and even to my surprise, needed by others who were more like me than I imagined.
The needed element to community produced spark, which grew to flame, pulling me further into creative expression and growth as a writer, and now an author. So when the idea of a writers group grew beyond discussion to the level of invitation, I leapt at the opportunity to learn from peers and give in collaborative exchange. Months deep into our writers group, I can say that I’ve benefited as a writer and creative in ways beyond imagination because of community, unreachable in my individual effort.
And now, each time I walk into an Art House Dallas Exchange, I look for the first timers, especially, who may be wondering if this community is for them. I have an affinity for stories similar to mine, for those needing and needed. This is what Art House Dallas means to me.
Guy Martin Delcambre is an author and public speaker based in Dallas, Texas, who writes about faith in thin moments, strength found in weakness, and God’s grace immeasurable. Guy was once a pastor, a church planter, and a widower, in that order. From the darkest night in life— the death of a spouse— to learning to live life as a single father to three young daughters, Guy has traveled the greatest distance of the heart to find home in God’s faithful goodness. Together he lives with his wife, Marissa, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Emily, and Chloe. Follow Guy on Twitter @GuyDelcambre. Visit Guy's Blog here.