Feeling Neighborly

Well! I’ve been thinking more and more in the past year that I’d like to get to know our neighbors more – as in, people who lived in our general neighborhood, not necessarily those who live directly next to us.\par
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This has been a most neighborly week! Last week at the park I met a couple with two little kids who live a block and a half away from us. They were letting Judah chase the bubbles they were blowing for their nearly-e-year-old, and we got to talking. I invited her over, and on Tuesday she came walked over for a short morning visit. She and her husband are Christians, and attend a church I’ve even heard of! \par
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Last fall I met a girl at the park with a son a little younger than Ezra. We walked together once or twice and she came over for coffee – then she changed her phone number, and the weather got too miserable for walking, so we lost touch. Last week I left a note on her door with my phone number and asked her to call if she wanted to reestablish communication. Yesterday she called and today we walked to the park with she and her son. They’re not\’c3\’82\’c2\~Christians, which I’m rather delighted about, as I feel sometimes like I live in such a cloistered environment that I’m completely out of touch with most people’s reality. And maybe there’ll be some sort of witnessing opportunity? Lord Willing.\par
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On our way home, we walked past a house that’s just diagonal to ours, but behind us. A woman was outside with her kids, so we stopped to say hello, and ended up visiting for about half an hour, which included a tour of my extraordinarily messy house (I went shopping this morning). She seemed nice, and she and her family attend church in Canby and have kids in a Christian school. I got her name and phone number.\par
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So, we’ll see what comes of all this neighborliness…