Good Neighbors

A good neighbor is a fellow who smiles at you over the back fence, but doesn't climb over it.
~ Arthur Baer

In my life, I've been fortunate enough to have really great neighbors wherever I've lived.
Growing up, Michelle and Kenny lived next door, and though they went to a different school, we had a lot of fun. Tami lived catty corner across the street. She and I were friends clear until we graduated from high school. We still keep in touch at Christmas.

When I was in college, I lived in several basement apartments and always got along well with the upstairs neighbors. Which was amazing considering one set had a 2 year old boy.

When I was first married, we lived next to Kim, who asked me to go with her to help her on the closing of her house. She and I would take walks every morning. Not only was she a friend, she was a sister in Christ. I was fortunate enough to see her last weekend when I stopped by the old neighborhood we lived in.

When we moved to Wyoming, we had neighbors that our kids grew up with. Their daughter, Kari, is still one of my oldest daughter's best friends.

When I moved back to Colorado I had fantastic neighbors in both the townhouse I lived in when I was single and then the neighbors I had when I got remarried and we bought our house. Today I got a package in the mail from one of those neighbors, Kevin, who just wanted to see how I was doing in my new place. He'd just come back from a trip, and picked me up something while he was there. How thoughtful of him! I usually watched his guinea pig while he was out of town, so I guess old habits die hard there. ;)

My current neighbors, Leon and Carolyn, came over today and lent me a shovel and a broom to help me get my huge piles of leaves and trash out of the yard. Now that the snow has all melted and I can get out and do some yard work I'm realizing how few tools I actually have. Later on, Leon will bring over a ladder to help me hang some things high up in the wall I can't reach with my step ladder. They also watched my dogs when I went on vacation. We're going to share flowers and cuttings this spring and fall and watch the birds together. I'm looking forward to it.

The Bible talks a lot about neighbors. In the old testament there are lots of rules on how to live next to someone. In the new testament we are admonished by Jesus himself to 'love our neighbors as ourselves' which is the second greatest commandment. We are told to rejoice with our neighbors, to be a neighbor like the Good Samaritan. Here in the blogsphere, I have a lot of neighbors. Some people visit here in my little world every day, some a little less often, but whenever you have a chance to drop on by, I'm glad you do. So, neighbor, I'm glad we're friends. Drop by my little place here anytime.