Upside of the Real Estate Crash?

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting a new neighbor this evening, and her lovely children and husband. It's amusing how after a winter of being holed up in our homes, the beautiful weather draws us all out, and the mood lifts!

I was giving my new acquaintance the run-down of the occupants of the 8 other homes on our little quiet cul-de-sac...and was in awe, once again, of what an incredible neighborhood we live in--not because of the homes or the lake or the hills or the schools...but because of the people in those homes.

I think that if there's an upside to the real estate crash, it's that people are staying put in their homes, and building stronger bonds with their neighbors. That's certainly been true for us. Not sure if it's a Michigan thing, a Midwest thing, or an American thing, but neighbors are slow around here. Slow in a good, cautious sort of way. We don't rush relationships--we don't want to be overbearing or annoying, so we err on the side of aloofness. Good fences make good neighbors, but we don't have fences here, so we must be extra careful not to cross lines, hahaha. But because of this, we need a good couple of years of backyard conversation before we establish anything more!

What makes the neighborhood (in particular, our street) so great? It's hard to say. Why do I love the color purple? It just feels right. There don't seem to be any common threads--we've got homeschoolers (nope, I'm not the only one out of these 9 homes here!), private schoolers, and public schoolers. We have hard-core Midwesterners, Southerners, and Asians. Children of all ages represented, from infants through grown children. We have meticulous landscapers, floundering gardeners, and those with bare yards. Dogs with invisible fence, and dogs that wander. Devout Christians, religious philosophers (ok just one, moi), Catholics, and even a minister!

But we wave from the car. We say hello when on our bikes or walking. We gather at Christmastime, and sometimes at the summer picnic. We keep keys for each other, and watch elderly parents when family goes away. We pet sit, and we call around when the power goes out ("Do you guys have power over there?" or "Is your cable working?") We watch for mysterious cars. We drive slowly. We borrow cars and snowblowers and use each other for emergency contacts. We babysit and tutor and teach each other's children.

We're a support system.

And we don't judge. We don't carry on about the small stuff. When I have to close my house up in the summer because it's windy out and your lawn chemical is making me sick (in addition to polluting the lake), I remind myself that my dog sometimes poops in your yard. When I'm blasting my music loudly from the house so I can groove while I weed my garden, I hope that you remember when I cared for your elderly father while you were away. There's just this beautiful, loving, blessed relationship we all share...but it took time.

It took years!

And my guess is that at least half of us would've moved by now, had we not lost nearly 50% of the value of our homes in the past 6 years. We have no choice but to stay, and knowing that, we accept and love and enjoy each other! (No, I don't think this is really a conscious decision, but a phenomenon we subconsciously partake in).

Despite the rush, rush, rush of our daily lives, life truly does progress slowly. Relationships take time and commitment in order to return depth and value. It's true in marriage--my husband and I sometimes joke that it's a darn good thing we got married, because we'd never still be together if we hadn't! LOL! We share that in a loving way, because we're so GLAD we're still together. It's making it through all the highs and lows, and looking back on those that add such richness to our relationship, as well as adding a sense of security that we're in it through thick and thin. And although I haven't exchanged vows with my neighbors, hahaha, we are committed to acceptance, balance, and finding joy in each other, as we are all here for the long haul.

This post is dedicated to the following lovely families on our street: Abdelmessiah, Li, Marr, Tarantino, Byerly, Warn, Mecum, and Rhodes...and the late Tv personality, Mr. Rogers, for never underestimating the value of neighboring, teaching such warmth to our children, and setting a stellar example for us all.