Monday, September 13, 2010

Friends You Love Blog Hop - Week 2

FriendsYouLove

This month is about building friendships and making our existing friendships stronger...We challenge you to dig into your "followers" list and find one follower you don't know well (not a loyal commenting person) and reach out to them and ask them to do a guest post on YOUR blog. Then, come back and link up with your guest post and have your new friend (guest poster) link up as well!

This week, I am pleased to welcome Ann from Ann Again...And Again

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I had an interesting experience not long ago that reminded me of how important it is for women to connect with one another.  We may put up walls of “too busy” or “I just couldn’t handle anything else in my life” but women need to connect, we physically and emotionally need friendships.

My neighborhood is one where most of us will water your garden while you’re out-of-town, pick-up your kids from school if you have an appointment or come and help if you’re painting your house.  We keep an eye on each other however, we won’t intrude.  It’s kind of “ask and you shall receive” relationships;   Comfortable spaces.  I discovered recently that our “comfortable space” needed to expand.

A Waving Neighbor (you know the kind, you don’t know their names, don’t speak, just wave and smile) told my children that her cat had just had kittens.  Well, that created a wave of hysteria in our neighborhood with my girls telling the next house over, which told the neighbors across the street and so on.  Soon I had 5 kids at my door saying “Can we go see the kittens?!!  She said you have to be with us!!!”  How can I deny a request to see precious kittens?  I can’t!  So off we went to the Waving Neighbors house.

While the children coo’ed over these precious balls of fur that could barely open their eyes the neighbor and I started innocuous conversations, nothing deep.  Then… it happened.  My Waving Neighbor let it be known that she was going through a tough time personally.  I was curious because her house had a “For Rent” sign months ago then it was gone but she was still there.  I found out what was going on in her life, and things were not going well at all. 

She’s a sweetie.   She lives alone with her dog Chubs, and now a house full of kittens.   She’s going through so much turmoil all on her own and I felt so bad that I hadn’t chipped down my wall of “too much going on in my life” to reach out.  It was obvious from the For Rent sign going up then down that something had changed, but I didn’t think she would need me.  Why would she want to talk to me?  Well, she did have that need, like I feel we all do, to connect with someone, to share her story and maybe help her feel that she wasn’t so alone.  There were many hugs that afternoon.  Many much needed hugs.

Our neighborhood is stronger now.  I have one more garden to water and one more paper to pick-up if they’re out of town.  I have created another friendship, and that feels great.


7 comments:

Ducky said...

I love the way a garden grows with just a little love, a little sunshine and some water. Amazing isn't it?!

Anonymous said...

I only have Waving Neighbors. Im not "friends" with any of them. Its kinda sad actually.

Kristy @Loveandblasphemy said...

I know - I wish I had better friendships with my neighbors. People are so likely to keep to themselves.

Shell said...

All my neighbors are just waving neighbors. I'd love to get to know some of them better.

Inspiring You To Save! said...

Visiting from the Blog Hops! I love your site. I can't wait to get to know you better. Stop by when you get the chance. I have a Meet Me Monday blog hop and I would love if you could join in. Its the first thing posted on my site.

http://www.inspiringyou2save.com

Colie's Kitchen said...

You have a great blog!! I am really enjoying looking around. Thanks for sharing!! I am now a new follower!! Nicole @ colieskitchen.com BTW I found you on a blog hop!

Danielle said...

That gave me goosebumps! Awesome!

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