Events surrounding my nonagenarian friends, who have been having a rough time, have caused me to think about neighbors. During a recent ice event in our town, my friends were alone in their home (their son having passed away the previous week). The ice came quickly, and they had a problem with their phones so no one knew if they were in need. Friends called the police who did a welfare check, discovering they were safe. They then contacted a close-by neighbor to see if they would be available in case of emergency. When the neighbors visited in my friends’ home, it was the first time they had ever spoken, even though they had been next door to each other for years. I find this concept to be foreign because my neighbors have always been close friends, too. I hope this is true for most people! Even though sitting on the front porch visiting with neighbors is not as prevalent as before the invention of the television and computer, I hope people still gather together just for the fun of it! That common ground we all need to find is there, waiting for us to open the door, no matter what our philosophical differences may be. As a person who enjoys solitude, I know this isn’t always easy to do. But let’s remember, we don’t have to spend lots of time with people to acknowledge that we’re all in this together …
“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 518:15-19
“You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You should want to bless them in return, out of gratitude. You need not know them individually, or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God’s holy children are worthy channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a child of God to love his neighbor except as himself. That is why the healer’s prayer is: Let me know this brother as I know myself.”
A Course in Miracles T-5.in.3:1-8
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