Thank You for Neighbors

At the end of meditation classes, our teacher would close with the students sharing something that they felt grateful for. Gratitude is a powerful emotion. It gives me peace and puts everyday problems into perspective.  I’m always alert for that feeling of gratitude.
My neighborhood is a small one. One street, really. Nine houses. On a street like this one, you get to know your neighbors. We have small lots on a beautiful lake. Our homes used to be summer cottages, and they’ve been revised over and over for a hundred years so that they are now pretty close to small luxury homes. Our town has a rule against fences because, after all, they don’t look good. They would disturb the views of the land from the lake that our town is centered around. It’s a bit of a nuisance when you have dogs. Everyone at my end of the street has a dog or so. We have five dogs between the three houses at the end of the lane. It used to be six including the fourth house from the end, but when Mickie passed, her elderly owners decided that it wouldn’t be wise to get a new dog at their age.
We all have different ideas about dogs and freedom. For our part, we generally walk Rocky and Bear on leash, but also let them out if it’s just a quick thing, like when I get the newspaper from the box under the mailbox, or when they need to go out during a commercial break of a tv show. Firefly next door generally has the romp of the whole area. Frankly, I worry that that dog is going to get run over or eaten by a coyote, but it’s not my dog. Two doors down, Blue and Ruby have a pen attached to the garage, and sometimes run around with supervision, and occasionally go for walks. The dogs all get along. Rocky used to be in love with Ruby, but he’s now more in love with the smells of everything. Bear loves the commotion when all the dogs are out, as long as he gets more of the human attention than every other dog.
Today I was out with the dogs to get the newspaper, and almost made it back into the house, when Ruby popped over, so my dogs ran over to Ruby’s yard, and Ruby ran into my house, where she likes to check to see if there’s dog food in the dishes. She was feeling playful and really didn’t want to leave, but eventually I persuaded her to leave, and I grabbed a couple of leashes to help with the retrieval of my dogs so that I could have time to get ready for church.
So, finally, I’ll get to the point of this. Back outside again, I ran into my neighbor. She’s an awesome neighbor. She’s also a cardiologist, and a wonderful one, thankfully for me. But as we were chatting outside about our dogs, the neighbor’s landscaping, insomnia, and medical marijuana, I remembered gratitude.
I’m so grateful for my neighbors. Things aren’t always perfect, like when one of them had a contractor that messed up our yard and cut our electricity and the gas line. But those things that aren’t perfect are just things that need to get fixed, and they do get fixed. My neighbors are happy people. Even the older couple that we first thought were cranky old people… well, she’s my very good friend and we now are in a book club together and walk for exercise together, and occasionally share a glass of wine (or two). The one with the problem contractor has an adorable daughter who talks to everyone and is a ray of sunshine. The couple with Ruby and Blue have two amazing daughters whom my daughter babysat and sang songs from Les Mis to. And down the street we have a friend with whom I do yoga, and an older man who knows all the gossip in town. This is a wonderful place to be. It’s that way because we all opened up ourselves to each other, and we all greet each other with a smile.
Today, I am grateful for neighbors.