life beyond the siding

Our new house is part of a great neighborhood revitalization project.  They take old homes that are falling apart and do a fantastic job completely redoing them, hoping to spur neighborhood growth and change along the way.  Ours is the first house on the block, which comes with a fair bit of anticipation for seeing some of the "revitalization" hit our street.

But in the week since we have moved in we have had neighbors:

• go out and buy us donuts and sweets to welcome us.
• mow our yard and trim our weeds on multiple occasions.
• bring us a bag of clothes for our little one.
• come from several different houses when they saw our shed delivered to help us carry it piece by piece around back.
• make sure to come share the trash & recycling schedule when I put everything out on the wrong day like a fool.
• spend some time sharing some great wisdom from life experience with us.

And I am reminded once again that life and kindness and wisdom and generosity are not related to the paint on the house, the quality of the grass, or the cost of rent in a community.  There is plenty of vitality on my block.  The houses just need some work.