Wait until next year

I think that suburbia can have a reputation for being impersonal, lacking a sense of community or togetherness. I suspect that is sometimes part of the appeal. I also suspect that you can feel just as isolated in cities or villages or any other metropolitan area.

However, this isn’t always the case. On the first night in our house our neighbour popped by with a welcome card, a bottle of wine and a four-pack of beer. It was a lovely, extremely welcome gesture.

As I walk to the station I see other gifts between those of us who live here, gifts that don’t require face-to-face contact, or even knowing each others’ names.

Front gardens are a great act of generosity. These are areas only fleetingly experienced by the owner, yet they tend them, take care of them, make them beautiful. It is a civic act, in that is makes an area more appealing, but I think it runs deeper than that. As I walk to the station I pass by a house with a blossoming tree outside. My heart soars, it brings genuine, meaningful joy. It makes a grey Tuesday morning a little less grey. That joy is in the wonder of nature, the coming of Spring, but also in the act of someone caring enough to share this with the people around them.

These gestures are important, I think.