Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tuesday - Random Act of Kindness

Today is Tuesday, where I will focus on either things I am grateful for or Random acts of kindness.  Yesterday I was driving into my neighborhood and I saw a mother pushing an umbrella stroller with at least five grocery bags hooked on to the stroller.  We live in a nice neighborhood, which is located very close to a grocery store.  It is not uncommon to see people from the neighborhood go to the store and walk back but this did not seem like a walk for pleasure, it was a walk of necessity.  So I pulled over and offered her a ride.  Now, please understand, if my children would have been with me I would not have done it.  The chances of this person being violent with a small baby were minimal and she was walking into my neighborhood where there is no other entrance.  I have to stress, safety is very important and looking back on it, sometimes you can't always help out in a situation even if you want to.  This time I took the chance.  I dropped her off at her house (about a mile away) and then I went home.  Long ago this was not uncommon, and you would know your neighbors.  Our world has gotten so drawn up into fear that you really do fear your neighbors. 

A couple of years ago our next door neighbor died.  Now my husband knew her because he had lived here longer than I had,  but I only saw her once.  She died and we barely noticed the lack of activity at her home.  She had been sick for a while and there was very little activity at her home for a while.  I had to wonder, what if I had shown a little more kindness and gone over to see her and check on her.  Turns out her family was out of town and they had to sell her house from a couple of states away.  It just makes you think, what happened to being neighborly.  I don't remember when it changed.  It is definately not the same world I grew up in as a child.  We knew everyone that lived within four to five houses of us on either side.  Now I know a handful of my neighbors, and I have lived in the same neighborhood for over ten years.

I am going to challenge myself to at least wave to my neighbors when I see them walking and maybe I will try to reach out to a neighbor just to say hi.  What about you?  Are you close to others in your neighborhood?  Or do you exsist in your own little world?  I know we do, we have so much going on in our own family that it is hard to find time for people outside our smalll circle.  Maybe that should change........

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