"We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbor."~G. K. Chesterton
We found out last night that our next door neighbor, who I've talked about before with his mental illness, etc., has had his house foreclosed. He's not been home in a steady way for ages and ages, so I guess it was bound to happen. The most interesting part is that it goes to auction on Thursday---time to pray for God to intervene with a buyer that pleases Him (and truth be told, I'd like to be pleased as well, but that's another story). Anyway, I went to our neighbor on the opposite side of him and and one of our across-the-street neighbors today to warn them. When homeowners see unexpected busyness at a house, it sometimes makes us a bit uncomfortable, especially with the landlord issue on our street. One guy buys all the cheap available houses he can scoop up and then rents them to folks who 'nine times out of ten' (no kidding) have previous arrest records. Not sure what gives with that.
The first neighbor I visited is one we've been out of touch with for a bit. He's been unemployed with a back injury and is having to get help to catch up. I wasn't aware of local programs that'll aid in that sort of instance. Pretty cool. It's a short-term situation, but with some assistance, he'll be able to stay in his house and also get his health back in order. But he WORE ME OUT. I think he's lonely with being home so much, but he just about did me in with complaining about the riff-raff on the street. I realize we're all upset about the unsavory activity that pops up with the new renters, but my goodness, it's not that bad. When I finally was able to leave, after listening to him gripe for about 45 minutes, I went across the street, and I kid you not----it was like a Zen moment. The other neighbor is as calm and cool as you please. Her house was quiet, her dog stood in front of me and stared at me like I was his best friend. She even has a Zen dog. The sunshine made such pretty shadows in her living room and I came away refreshed. Oh, and plus she gave me a huge jade plant, with the promise of two more---even bigger. She's outgrown them and wants more room for other plants. And, we're trading a bit of time with the boys helping me clean out the honeysuckle and vines from her azaleas out front. A fair trade, I think. Win-win for me.
Glad I didn't go to her house first and the grumpy neighbor second. God is in the details.
