Neighbor Moment: Nancy Called…

Phew! Another long & satisfying day…

Passed a major milestone in building our company (updates on that soon!), made it outside to plant a half-box of black-eyed peas, and blasted through tons of communications. I’ve been challenging myself lately to focus on priorities and not let myself weasel out of those little extraneous things on my To-Do List that never seem to get done. Crossing those things off feels so good!

But my favorite part?

The thing I didn’t plan for: a call from Nancy, whose list I got on via visiting the Grant Historic House a few weeks ago on a tip from the ladies I met at the Grant Library. Nancy calls me now (on the phone! an unheard of thing these days) to let me know what the craft group for the Historic House is working on, and to invite me to their next get-together this Saturday. They’ll be making bows and flower arrangements to go onto something they made last time, and apparently my next-door neighbor Karen will be leading the class. Everyone brings $5 to cover supplies, and usually we get to take some bows and things we make home– and the final products will be sold come November at the Historic House’s community sales to help keep the house — and our community’s history — well preserved.

Hopefully, I can make it to get to know some of the local ladies, but I was just so touched to be called. There is undeniably something about life-to-life communications like phone (human voice = vibration) or in-person that nourishes us in ways that digital screen-talk like texting and email cannot.

While we chatted (we have never actually met), Nancy asked me what ideas I have for crafts we could make and sell to benefit the Historic House, and she asked me what I do, and answered my questions about the community. We agreed that, even if I don’t make it–and I regrettably might not, as Trae and I have lots to do getting the house in order for company–Nancy and I should get together. “I’m like the town cryer,” she said. “Pretty much anything you need to know, just call me!”

After we hung up, I was chatting with my husband and he reminded me that we’re in need of a good gas weed-eater (until we can buy one)… so I called that very same neighbor, Karen, and before asking about the weed-eater, mentioned I’d just been talking with Nancy. “Oh, I was just about to call her back!”

This feeling of increasing interwoven-ness, of being welcomed and invited and *called* — it just does something to my heart. An ever-deepening sense of belonging. A comfort. A murmuring, subterranean joy… It is the web I most want to be weaving, the thing I most want to be building. I think today felt so nice because that inclusion came to me.

And beyond these deep perks I’m enjoying, I feel newly emboldened excited to keep working on finding ways that all of my neighbors, and neighbors everywhere, can experience and help grow this same kind of belonging and embeddedness.

 

Parallel Inspirations:

  • Achim Nowak, “The Price of NOT Picking up the Phone
  • “When we discover the true richness of our neighbourhoods- the vast and amazing potential- it becomes clear that we could fill many lifetimes within the boundaries of a few blocks. And that is more than enough.” Jamie Arpin-Ricci

#neighboring #ilovemyneighborhood #abundance #community #hometownlove #neighborhoods

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