Neighbors

Don't you wish you could interview your neighbors before moving into a new house? Walk up and down the street with a clip board and ask some simple questions like, "Do the neighbors say hello when they see you or do they become very interested in the pattern their shoelaces make instead?"


My family and I attended the annual block party of our OLD neighborhood. That's right. We've gone back to our former neighborhood block party every year since we moved. (Not to mention all the block parties we attended while we lived there!) How wonderful to see familiar faces and be greeted with warm hugs. It's almost like going home again.

Sometimes I wish I still lived there. (That's not a knock on the people who I've gotten to know in my new neighborhood. I like quite a few.) Things that are familiar feel like our favorite sweatshirt does - broken in, comfortable, soft against our harsher spots. But not everything can stay the same even when we want it to. We adapt. We adjust. We go back and visit. Sometimes we have to buy a new sweatshirt.


I miss my neighbors. I miss the knocks on the door and someone asking to borrow a cup of sugar. I miss knowing everyone on the street and knowing when someone doesn't belong there. It's a neighborhood like ones you only read about. Mayberry's got nothing on these folks!

So, here's to my neighbors! May the road rise up to meet you, may your grass always be green, and your cups always full! See you next year!