KEEPING UP WITHE THE JONESES CAN BE A TOUGH ROAD
Being a good neighbor doesn’t have to be difficult, but quite frankly you can make it that way. Trying to top your neighbors at every opportunity you get, and apparently… this is exactly what I’ve done to myself.!
We live in an amazing neighborhood. We have neighbors who we often carry long drawn out conversations at fence level with about the weather and how home renovations can suck you dry. We truly feel as though we have struck it rich living in the home and area that we do, but with the good comes evil right? The feeling of always having to complete with the guy next door; cut your grass first, take in the trash cans in a timely manner, wave at every opportunity you get, and of course create small-talk when you’re both out on your front drive-ways. This is exactly what happens when you live in a neighborhood with human beings you respect deeply.
Sammy and I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job keeping up with the Joneses, but this past week I felt like maybe I just wasn’t doing enough. Let me explain, 2 weeks ago a neighbor finished up trimming his hydrangea bush and put all the gorgeous clippings in buckets of water and placed them just so on his front lawn with a sign that read FREE. Sofia and I were uber-excited to take our helping and parade around our home gifting each room with their own little bunch of floral goodness. Our week had been made with his simple gesture of giving (we’re a sucker for flowers, let me tell you).
Then, it happened again, this passed week, I get home from grocery shopping and another neighbor has clipped her flower bushes and left me bouquets at my doorstep. OH BUT WAIT, it gets better, just 3 days ago the other Jones in the neighborhood comes by to hand deliver homemade dried oregano in this sweet little mason jar. Was this real life?
I felt so grateful but at the same time like maybe I had become the asshole in the neighborhood? What had I done for my neighbors lately? Bringing my groceries I started to think of the ways I had possibly dropped the ball…
…well, I mean at Christmas Sofia and I hand deliver home-baked goodies. And then of course we always extend the invite with our open-gate policy during our Summer movie nights, and then there is the veggie deliveries we make when our veggie garden is exploding with goodness.
NOPE! We’re good people after all, we’re doing our part to make this neighborhood what it is. Thank goodness we hadn’t fallen short of the Joneses title and unexpectedly become THAT neighbor. Disaster averted!
Being a neighbor is tough!
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