neighbors

i just hung up with mrs. b, next door.
she's one of my elderly neighbors. i have a few.
there's always a little something they need done
and the boys help them out. it's like the boys
have half a dozen adopted granparents around the
neighborhood! and they get paid in food! junk food
and sodas....the boys get piled up with food....
and love. lotsa love.

as we were getting ready to hang up, mrs. b. told
me she loved me. she always ends the conversation
that way. so it wasn't the first time i heard it...
but it hit me just now.

ya see, the boys and i were dreamin' about our futures
yesterday and where we wanted to end up. and i was wonderin'
if i wanted to move off to the mountains and be secluded
or in a funky pretty little town with neighbors.

i do love a neighborhood. i grew up in one where everyone
watched out for everyone, and i live in one of those now.

i think about the different times i've had my arms around
neighbors when they were struggling with something, and the
times their arms have been around me....the time i broke down
and cried when i was shoveling one of the elderly ladie's snow
and she came over in the knee deep snow and mothered me
and told me everything was going to be okay and i just needed
to keep my chin up. i've never seen a snow fall since where i
don't remember that.

there have been ambulances and police cars and lotsa checkin'
up on each other. garden produce bein' passed around, and
yard tips and grass growin' advice. and tons and tons of car
fixing and tool sharing....

one week i had my neighbor's son in my yard for the entire week
workin' on his car. my neighbor got nervous that it would bother me,
and 'ordered' his son outta my yard. i looked at his son and said
'i'll talk to your dad.' he looked at my son and said 'she'll never win,
she doesn't know my dad.' and my son looked at him and said 'yeah,
but you don't know my mom.'

i wandered over and told his dad not to take my joy away. that i loved
his son like he was one of mine and that it was such a tickle to be
able to be there to help him. and wouldn't he do the same for my
son if he needed the space and tools? and please allow me to be a
neighbor and a friend to him. he stayed.

and bonds grew deeper.

there's something about neighbors that's different from any
other kinda relationship. and i like it.

it's one of those things you can take for granted....
and one of those things you should really treasure.