The Kindness of Neighbors

There were quite a few things worth mentioning today that brought me joy, so I’ll start with them in order:

First, after weeks of gloomy, rainy weather, the sun finally came out today and made the entire town feel like spring had sprung. It was so lovely, in fact, that I opened the back doors and let all the fresh air waft through the house, which made our entire home instantly feel cleaner and more refreshed. Don’t ask me how it does it, that’s just the way it is.

Secondly, our daughter left her backpack in the front lawn at school this afternoon. At school pickup, I stayed a while and talked to some of the moms while all of our kids played together out front. She didn’t realize she left it until we walked through our front door, so we made a plan to ride scooters over there to get it.

Well, as I was walking outside to bring in some non-perishable groceries I bought earlier, I see two of the moms and their kids walking towards our house, backpack in hand. They brought it to us!

“Special backpack delivery!” one of them said as they got closer. I couldn’t believe it. How thoughtful is that? They live close by, so they walk to school anyway, but they took a different route to make it to our house. I was already not looking forward to going back to school to get it, so the feelings of relief and gratefulness were aplenty. It was just about the nicest thing that has ever happened to me. This is what I love about people and about community. They will always find a way to surprise you when you least expect it.

And lastly, I cooked tonight! I know this doesn’t seem noteworthy in the least, and most nights it’s absolutely not, but I haven’t cooked a meal in like two weeks since we were gone for so long, and we ate out pretty much the whole week before we left because we didn’t want to buy groceries that would go bad while we were gone.

It felt so good to sit down as a family and eat a healthy dinner: salmon, rice, and broccoli. Afterwards we played Uno and all felt right in the world.

The worst part of the day? When I was cooking the salmon, I must have had too much olive oil in the cast iron skillet and it splattered and popped and HIT ME IN THE EYE. I have been cooking for a long time now and I can honestly tell you this is the first time that’s ever happened. It’s irritated and bothering the hell out of me.

I’ll know better next time!