Neighbors

My husband and I got a wonderful surprise from our neighbors Tim and David the other day. We were out in the front yard early as the kids slept, me with coffee and the baby monitor, George planting some new plants, when our sweet neighbors from two doors down stopped in front of our house. Tim got out of the truck with a shirt full of something, I couldn't quite tell, until I got closer: beans! They had just been to their garden plot in the neighborhood garden down the street behind the Methodist church. They decided to share their bean goldmine with us. How nice. Tim transfered the beans from his shirt into George's. I wish I had a photo of that!

It just made me feel like part of the neighborhood, kind of the same way I feel when I take the kids walking in the morning and meet someone new or wave to people I know or don't know that well. I like that feeling of belonging. We have lived in our new neighborhood almost a year, and have really enjoyed getting to know it and the people. The kids and I like to see who and what we can see each morning when we walk the hills. Mostly we see birds, flowers, trees, squirrels (including the white one on occasion!), a few cats, some dogs, and lots of neighbors. We've met a family with 6 children and a dog who live around the corner, a lady who gardens a huge yard of flowers, some folks who take great care manicuring their lawns, some more mature neighbors who say we remind them of "the old days" when we pass by their home with children in a stroller, and most recently a retired first grade teacher who has grown twins. It is always an adventure. And of course all this reminds me of our great neighbors and friends we made growing up. We moved a lot, but I remember lots of wonderful neighbors in our neighborhood in Arlington.
But, back to the beans. It is also nice to be given something just because. Our next-door neighbors are great about that as well. We (and our stomachs) have benefitted from some wonderful grilled food and homemade tamales. We have shared homemade goodies as well.

So, what did I do with the beans? Well, they sat in a colander for two days before I cooked them, but we enjoyed them last night with brown butter, balsamic and green onions thanks to Rachael Ray. Yum. However, before the beans made it to the colander, I let the children explore them, count them, and even taste them. Too funny.

I hope you are as lucky as we are to have wonderful neighbors and to be good ones in return.

All of this makes me think of Mr. Rogers, who of course sang about wanting to be your neighbor. I have enjoyed some of his books, and have shared his sage advice with parents for many years.

I found some quotes of his that I will share here:

1. “You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable.”

2. “Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.”

3. “There’s so much more to everyone you will ever meet than will ever meet your eye.”

4. "Well, what is essential about you? And who are those who have helped you become the person that you are? Anyone who has ever graduated from a college, anyone who has ever been able to sustain a good work, has had at least one person and often many who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others."

5. “Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we aren’t perfect.”

6. "The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile."

7. "It's our insides that make us who we are, that allow us to dream and wonder and feel for others. That's what's essential. That's what will always make the biggest difference in our world."

8. ”How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?”

9. "The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self."

10. "If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person."

11. ”Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person."

12. "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?"