Community

First off, despite its title, this post isn’t about the tv show, though I am a fan of it. It’s a primetime comedy that is, shockingly, actually funny. Like, really funny. Makes-me-cry-and-maybe-hit-my-husband (gently, but firmly) -as-I-snort-and-howl-like-an-idiot funny. Anyway, enough about that.

As you may or may not have heard, the third wee beastie has graced our family with his appearance. I now have a son and it still feels a little awkward saying that but feels really awesome to be living it.

I strive to aptly title my posts, so though I could pretty much write a zillion posts about how very amazing the babe is and collectively call them “The coolest thing that’s happened to me lately”, the title of this here post tells you it’s headed in a different direction.

My husband and I bought our house six and a half years ago. We liked that it is in an established, older neighbourhood, that it's not too big and not too small - oh, and was in our price range.

The thing about our neighbourhood, though, is it doesn’t have the best reputation. I didn’t really care about the bad rap or even necessarily consider it true. Until two weeks after we had moved in to the joint when we came home to find the front door kicked in and the place tossed. It looked like something out of Law and Order. Couch cushions tossed everywhere, drawers dumped all over the floor, cupboards opened and emptied. But then there was this other very non-Law and Order-ish stuff, too, like many of my clothes in a pile on the living room floor, my husband’s Birkenstocks packed in a box (we had courteously left lots lying around for the thieves since we hadn’t finished unpacking) along with some juice boxes. Really? My old clothes and my husband’s stinky Birks and juice boxes? Amateurs. Except those amateurs also made away with a lot of our really valuable and valued stuff. But they also appeared to have been interrupted since they hadn’t got away with some of the clearly coveted items, though they were lined up at the back door.

Anyway, I got over the break in. Eventually.

We moved in to our house right before Christmas. Winter tends to make hermits out of Canadians. We do our best to enjoy the snow and the ridiculous cold weather and the gray days, but, really, we all just hang in there till summer and turn our attention to our books, tvs and liquor until the sun shines consistently and we can see grass again. Right, guys?

And so it wasn’t until the spring time that we emerged from our hibernation and realized there were people living in those buildings surrounding us. And, over the years, we* have gotten to know a lot of those people. Turns out it was worth coming out of hibernation after all because - rap be damned - our neighbourhood is pretty awesome. Except for the sketchy apartment buildings across the way. At least they inject our lives with drama every few weeks when the cops show up.

Okay, I have to clarify something here before I go on - it’s about the “we*” bit above. To be an annoying, I-want-to-fling-it-across-the-room broken record here, in my marriage (well, in all situations, scenarios and in reality in general) I am the introvert, my husband the extrovert. Big, boisterous groups of people energize him, they drain me. He loves meeting new people, I fear it more than spiders and slightly less than sharks. I will stop the examples and analogies: I think you get the picture. So, not surprisingly, he has been the one who has done most of the meeting and greeting with our neighbours, while I have gotten the benefit of all those relationships by association. Lucky! Okay, maybe it’s not that one-sided, but it's also not that far from the truth.

Anyway. Let me tell you about all the awesome things those neighbours have done for us in the last couple of weeks vis a vis the new addition to our family:

- given the gift of a full house cleaning

- fruit basket left on our doorstep along with a nice note - from new neighbours we haven’t even met yet

- homemade shepherd’s pie delivered to our door

- homemade chicken and spaghetti dinner delivered to our door

- homemade banana bread and cookies delivered to our door

- homemade lasagna delivered to our door

- an offer to use their pool whenever I want all summer to give my two older kids something to do and a way to cool off from the pressure cooker our adorable little house can be

- a huge fruit and treat basket delivered to our door (which made middle child exclaim “Yay! Oranges!” - a three year old frothing at the mouth for fruit - perhaps we were a bit neglectful in the nutrition department at that time. My husband had done breakfast duty that day: cupcakes and iced tea I believe I heard it was)

Also, our family is part of a great church that has this very cool group called the Care Ministry. One of the best “services” they offer is to provide warm, homemade meals delivered to your door for a period of time after a baby is born.

We’ve had this happen with all three of our kids now and it is, quite simply, amazing. For the last two weeks we have had dinner show up Monday to Friday around 6:00pm and each time it was delicious and overwhelming. Sometimes the people making the meals also give gifts for the baby and also sometimes for the older kids. See the picture to the right for an example of one such meal. Not included in the picture are the beach toys given to the girls. So thoughtful. So fantastic. So appreciated.

There is a point to recounting all this generosity, beyond bragging about the awesome people in our lives. Oh wait, actually that is the point: bragging about the awesome people in our lives. Okay, maybe not bragging, more like celebrating.

I’m going to skip the whole bit about how all we all want in this world is to be connected and yet we waste our time on Facebook and Twitter and all that jazz. You’ve heard it, you know it. But my husband and I also know that the relationships and connections that have been forged and nurtured over the last few years with our neighbours and other folks nearby are not all that common. We value this community all the time, noting how neat it is that we don’t have to wonder about “those people” who live next door, and that we’ve exchanged more than a quick nod before hurriedly averting our eyes from each other. The absolute joy and thankfulness we’ve felt recently with each offer of help, provision of food and gifts, and demonstration of support has been an awesome reminder of how great our little community is.

If any of you neighbourly folk are reading this, you rock. Hugs and sloppy kisses to you all.