Fluidity

We have new neighbors – again.  The last time we introduced ourselves to new neighbors in that same house next door was one year ago.  In this last year we welcomed, got to know a young couple who both lost jobs thanks to the pandemic, awaited and delighted at the birth of their firstborn, brought over the occasional meal and received incredible thank you’s and friendship and enjoyment.  Oh yes, it even helped our own loneliness for our children and grandchildren who live in other cities.

And now we start over again. This also is a young couple – also unmarried (so what’s new these days), also very friendly and also delighted with the cookies from our eternal everlasting kitchen stove (thanks to my wife, all I need do is make the suggestion and they appear!).  At this point the distinction between these tenants? the latter apparently can afford the rent… and they have two noisy dogs. 😔 Beyond that, it’s too early to tell.

This neighbor-change, however, includes a little more. I have agenda at this cusp point. The new neighbors are actually vulnerable to my history with that location beside me.  I have some smoldering thoughts at the landlord - a young fellow who probably had the house bought for him as a revenue property by his parents living in a more lavish community (my assessment I admit).  I clean the eaves troughs on their roof because if they get plugged I have a flood on my side deck. I wish a certain evergreen tree would not have been removed several years ago because it added beauty and shade to my house. And worst of all, I wish the young landlord would not be envious of some easement property which provides some garden space in our back yard, legally as per municipal law.  He begrudges me that meter-wide strip wishing it be on his side of the fence.  He lacks some maturity in neighborhood relations! 

This fortunately is unbeknownst to the new tenant.  They are innocent clear-eyed receptors of this long-time old timer next door.  And this gives me pause. We welcome them with open arms. Circumstances change as life moves on and new chapters always have new ingredients. This morning I was up at 6:30 to begin my walk.  It is what I need to do to help my body with my Type 2 diabetes.  But it is so much more; today as I began the careful pathway to our local Tim Horton’s (yes, a destination always helps to get you started) I was sure to note the shiny spots even on sidewalk stretches deemed safe the day before. Why? Because in these warm spring days the lawns let go of water during midday and then overnight frost changes sidewalk to black ice – nobody’s fault except changing seasons. Today's walk therefore most certainly is not a repeat of yesterday's walk!  [For earlier reference read my blog post “Sidewalk Inspector”, Feb 19]. Beautiful nicely shoveled snow banks are now the source of treachery. Seasons come seasons go.

This fluidity of change is a reality one must acknowledge forever and ever. In today's daily scriptures (March 15 Revised Common Lectionary,Year B) we have Moses only three days into the wilderness with his fellow-Israelites. Having just escaped the pursuing Egyptians thanks to a deluge of water as they attempted to follow them across the Nile, now the escapees are desperate for lack of drinking water and the complaints already beginning (Exodus 15:22-24). Read on if you'd like, the Old Testament is full of change. So much of it is life in all seasons trusting and mistrusting, honoring and sinning against their life giving God.   

New neighbors, new seasons, new possibilities, new relationships.  Jesus in the New Testament is on similar theme speaking to a woman of Samaria at the Well of Jacob. After asking her for a drink she marvels at him a Jew and a man speaking to her and that becomes the teachable moment.“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14) It is this woman’s openness which seems to be recognized by Jesus and that leads to the life giving conversation.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them (John 7:38).  New neighbors in the Lenten season? It’s a perfect time for the spring run-off waters to do their thing.

Maybe a glass of cold water with the new friends next door ….