“Love is sacrifice.
Love sacrifices itself for its neighbor.”
Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
“People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.”
George Eliot
(the next generation of neighbors / Julie Cook /2023)
In my neck of the woods, neighbors can have either two legs or four.
However, if the truth be told, the majority most likely come with four…
that is unless we count all the birds…be that songbirds, crows, turkeys, grouse,
etc…but I digress.
So imagine my surprise while I was mindlessly walking toward the kitchen sink
when suddenly something odd caught my attention.
It was as if some sort of super power laser vision took over—-
my eyes immediately locked on the eyes of another….
There were wee brown eyes curiously peering in at my green eyes.
All the while, eyes locked… this curious wee one was making a bee line
toward my kitchen window.
Seeing how small my inquisitive new friend was,
I knew mother couldn’t be too far away.
And just as I suspected, it just so happened that mother was close…
close near the front door. Yikes!
Throwing caution to the wind, I grabbed my phone, heading out that same door..
all the while my young friend had quickly retreated
meeting back up with mom on the opposite side of my car.
It seems my wee friend has a few siblings who aren’t as bold nor as
adventuresome.
Yet that matters not because a new group of neighbors have made their presence known…
and I am the better for it.
“When I say it’s you I like,
I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more
than anything you can ever see or hear or touch.
That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without
which humankind cannot survive.
Love that conquers hate,
peace that rises triumphant over war,
and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
Fred Rogers
cookiecrumbstoliveby 