The first neighbors I remember were Joe and Ethel, an elderly couple who lived at the bottom of our hill, just to the west. One of them, maybe Ethel, had Parkinson's. Joe kept bee hives and sold us the best honey, some still in the comb. One of my earliest memories is running as fast as I could from one of their hens, after I tried to pet its little yellow chicks. It pecked the back of my legs. (Ye-e-ow-w! The terror was worse than the nip.) Joe and Ethel taught me that the world outside my family and our church could be a friendly place.
Later, for most of our growing up years, our closest neighbors were a large family on the other side of a big lot. One daughter was bright-eyed and temperamental, with a sense of humor. She wore a brace on her leg, and was difficult to understand and a little slow, mentally. I still think of her once in awhile, and wonder how she's doing-- hope she's happy. This family, who had another child in special ed, provided a benchmark for me to be grateful for the advances that have been made in serving children with special needs in the public school system, over the past 30 years.
The neighbors across the valley on the other side were Amish and raised hogs. When the wind was from the north, you could smell Money.
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I'm thankful our current neighborhood is safe and quiet. We are rather newly come to it. Getting to know people takes time, effort, and intention. I am still simmering these ideas on the back burner of my mind.
(I just noticed the parallel to "chosen" and "given" I noted in November thanksgiving 9: family.)The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable. . . .
But we have to love our neighbour because he is there — a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given us. Precisely because he may be anybody he is everybody. He is a symbol because he is an accident.
---G.K. Chesterton (HT: Read the entire quote at Wittingshire.)
We lost our 85-year-old (retired pastor's wife) neighbor when we moved into this house. She knew our back door was unlocked at Cherry Ridge, and she would come in when we were gone and leave half-heads of garden cabbage (left over from their supper) or bouquets of zinnias on the counter. She said that nobody knows how to "neighbor" anymore. To her, "neigboring" was a verb. :-)
ReplyDelete(Christmas is an excellent time to try to come up with some kind of edible baked goods (in my case!) and take it to your neighbors!)
It's kind of interesting to see neighbors as a kind of "divine appointment," which I hadn't so much, before reading Chesterton's quote.
ReplyDeleteThe house across the street from us is on the market. We are praying for neighbors who will be friends, but we know whomever moves in is the neighbor God has given us. It's no accident. I feel the same way about my childrens' teachers.
ReplyDeleteVashti,
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. :-)
LS,
Those old neighbors were the best kind. Sorry you lost them.
Mopsy,
This topic is shifting my perspective on our neighborhood. I really hadn't thought of neighbors in that way. Some teachers, yes, some, no. :-) Maybe I need to re-think them, too. :-)