Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Her mood had to match the weather.


It was such a pleasant day. The sun was shining. A nice breeze. The temperature was in the mid-70’s. It was such a welcomed break from the heat wave that has consumed us the previous weeks. The day was perfect. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a light rain came down. No thunder. No lightening. Not a storm. Just a soft rain like the angels were crying.

The gentle rain continued most of the night. Then the next day the elements changed again. This time for the worse. It seemed as if the meteorologist was angry and decided we deserved a day of torture. The outdoor thermostat was set as high as it could go which made the day unbearable. I wondered if there was any relief in sight.

I also wondered if her mood was changing along side the weather patterns. Was she wondering if there was any relief in sight?

Last week, on that perfect sunshiny day, my neighbor found out that her 17 year old son had died. Like most of us, her day was humming right along just fine--until that knock on the door. And I am sure that she was crying right along with the angels when it started to rain. No there was no lightening or thunder. Just calm, quiet tears.

The next day, as the heat rose outside, I am sure hers did also. Why did this have to happen? What went wrong? Why him? Why me? What is a mom supposed to do? Questions only God Himself can answer.

It bothers me that a life so young has been taken. It bothers me that there are rumors that drugs were involved. It bothers me that a fellow mom is having to put her son into the ground way too soon.

But the thing that bothers me the most about the entire situation is that this is my neighbor. A neighbor whose name I don’t know. Whose face I couldn’t pick out of a line-up. Who attends the same house of worship as me. A neighbor who just received the worst news of her life and I …I don’t know how to help.

How can we live within yards of each other and not know each other’s names? How can we send our kids off to the same school on the same bus and not know one another? We have removed ourselves so much from society that we don’t know who we can call on in times of need. In times of rejoicing. When we need a hand or have a minute.

This young man’s death has sparked a cord in me to make sure we know each other. If that means I make a dozen trays of brownies and walk door-to-door introducing myself than so be it. I encourage you to do the same. Because it would be heartbreaking and distressful if you are the one burying your son and have no one to help you do it.

Get outside, walk the neighborhood and meet someone new in your community today, even if it is nasty weather.

Summer Break

It seemed like only yesterday when I watched my older kids come flying off the school bus canting the well-known mantra “No more papers. No more books. No more teacher’s silly looks!” Yep, it was the last day of school and inevitably the first day of summer break.

Unfortunately my excitement level did not match theirs. Actually it was quite the opposite. I was somewhat worried about the following 11 weeks. With our limited resources (which is just a nice way of saying “we ain’t got no money”) I knew that we would not be taking any vacations to far away places in those long summer days--76 days to be exact. To be completely honest our aforementioned limited resources would keep us from even getting to enjoy even visiting the local park pool or nearby day camps or summer enrichment programs or… Well you get the point.

So we got inventive and creative. We relied on neighbors and friends to invite us over for play dates and pool usage. We signed up for three VBS programs all over town. We were extremely grateful for Grandma’s Christmas present of a year long zoo membership. Although we used it sparingly. (As you can imagine taking four kids to the zoo by myself was not my favorite thing to do.) We did some home school lesson on various states and some science experiments. We made the best of our time together. And day by day, week by week, we survived.

Then, finally, school resumed. Some of my friends complained that it was too early to go back. But I was ready. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children but I love my schedule also. I find contentment in knowing that we have football on this day and church on that day and date night on another night. I find satisfaction when things are running smoothly and we have a routine.

Now that we are back on track, I can get back to writing. I never knew how much I loved it. I like sharing my life though stories. I like writing down my thoughts and the funny things that happen in our ever-eventful family. I like that someday I can just click “print” and my kids will have all of these stories to pass down. But mostly, I love that you readers take time out of your schedule to read my ramblings. Thank you for that.

So until the next adventure…………