Neighborhood Friends

Tomorrow is the first day of 1st grade with my students. While I should be walking around in circles nervously preparing for the day, I decided instead to take a relaxing walk with Ham around the neighborhood.

I asked him if he'd like to ride his new tricycle but he said he'd rather walk, so we put our shoes on and headed out the door.

He mentioned going to the church to "see Jesus" so we headed that way taking an alternative scenic route. Instead of passing our favorite tree, we passed our favorite bush. If we're careful and quiet enough we can creep up on the bush filled with fifty squeaking sparrows. For a minute, you can see the birds up close chirping feverishly to one another. They hardly notice us, but just as we raise our voices above a whisper the birds rush out in all directions, furious we interrupted their meeting. Being that close to it all is sort of magical and for minute I'm almost certain they were gossiping. But just as soon as we can catch a snippet of conversation they are off to a more secluded tree.

Today, as we stood whispering by the bird bush, I realized we had an audience behind us. Ms. Jennie, Barbara, Judy and Bonnie stood in the parking lot of the assisted living home that was just across the street. Jennie and I go way back to Henry baby days. To the days when I sat on my front porch bouncing him on my knee and she would sit next to me chatting about just about anything. Now we are regular neighborhood friends who catch up where we left off every time the timing is just right and our paths cross.

Ham and I didn't hesitate to stop for in for a chat and before we knew it, Ham had made a life long friend with Ms. Barbara who has almost no family at all.

And Ms. Judy who sells Avon.

 

And though she's not picture, Ms. Barbara, who doesn't technically live there but shows up to chat with the girls from time to time.

 

While Ham walked their pets, we talked about my first day of school tomorrow and a bunch of other random things, like the fact that Ms. Jennie put her dress on inside out by mistake. Though she was real embarrassed about it, she wasn't about to go fix it. I told her looked fine and that it really is a beautiful dress anyway. Ms. Barbara nudged my arm and said I was smart for saying so.

 

Then as the sun came down we hugged Ms. Jennie goodbye and headed to church.

 

 



To see "Baby Jesus".

And to splash over and over and over again in the puddles, because it seemed like the right thing to do.