“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you, I always wanted to live in a neighborhood, with you …” so sang Fred Rogers.
I can’t say that I ever wanted to live with the particular neighbors that we have, but I am so thankful that they are my neighbors just the same.
Often I have written from the negative perspective in regards to our house. How it is too big, takes too much of our time, too much of our income, too much of our life.
But all is not negative when it comes to our neighbors. As a matter of fact, our neighbors (on all sides) are the best part of where we live.
On one side there is a professional couple who are rather newish to the world of grand-parenting, and are well on their way to great and joyous success in this area of life and living.
On the other side there is a lovely dutch family with … maybe a dozen kids (inside Dutch family joke) and even more grandchildren between here and the province of Alberta.
A few houses up the street is the family of our kid’s friends. Their son being a year older than our daughter, and their daughter being a year older than our son. They all play on the streets, walk their dogs, play video games and swim in the pool. That one family’s presence in our daily life makes me guilty every time I speak of wanting to move, and they are the main reason we stay right where we are.
There are many more neighbors who we are so very thankful to live near to.
And then there are the neighbors across the street. She retired from the local school district, and he semi-retired 😉 (if you knew either you would know that they are the most active ‘retired’ couple around).
When we moved in, they were grandparents of one granddaughter, who was barely beyond toddler-hood. Each day her mom would drop she and her dog off for Gramma and Gampa to care for her while she was at work. And then the games would begin.
They have the best kept yard and home in the whole neighborhood of seventy-plus houses. And they amaze me at how they are able to work in their yard and stay clean themselves (for me yard work requires ‘work clothes’, and a hose down before entering the house).
Our eldest and I have watched them from our yard, as they played with, cared for and loved their granddaughter … both of us with a longing for that physical closeness for she and her siblings.
Our second daughter, although five years older, has spent hours playing with their granddaughter, walking dogs, and sharing their imaginations.
For hubby and I, they are such a sweet pause from yard work, fountains of information, and trustworthy mail picker-uppers. They have kept us informed when the coyotes were being seen too frequently, when someone was robbing vehicles in neighbors yards, and when our dear neighbor died far too young.
They were also the most gracious of victims about a year ago when our car ‘mysteriously’ decided to drive out of our garage down our steep driveway and smack dab right into the middle of their planter. When they came home to see their new garden decor, they laughed with us, and were thankful with us that there were no children on the street when it occurred.
But, our son … I cannot say I have ever heard of him speaking of them in all of the eight years we have lived here, other than the neutral, “they are nice.” Then, one day this summer, as we drove toward home, he pointed to the lawn mowing couple, who we love, and said, “Mom, they are just like that couple from the movie “Up”.”
And I smiled, and realized that their lives are so filled with such a magical love for others, for all living things and for each other that it is even visibly obvious to an adolescent boy.
“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you, I always wanted to live in a neighborhood, with you …”
itsawonderfilledlife 