I have been on a mission this summer to meet my neighbors. Do you have this problem in your community too? We are all busy people and it can be tricky to take the time to actually see one another. At Christmas we went around the neighborhood with small baked goods for our neighbors as a little Merry Christmas surprise. We found several families with kids and we were excited for our kids to potentially play together. The first two questions we often were asked were how old are your kids and where do they go to school. We have chosen to have our kids in a private school and when we told them that you could tell their facial expressions changed. Suddenly we weren’t in their community, even though we are literally next door neighbors. We have all sorts of judgements and stories that we tell about one another when we first meet someone new don’t we? It was that moment that I decided I had to make a very specific and intentional effort to create community. Recently, one of the neighbors I met at Christmas stopped and chatted when she was walking by our house and it was very exciting. Progress! It might be slow, but relationship takes time.
Here are three ways you can get started building community in your neighborhood.
Spend More Time in the Front Yard
I started following Kristen Schell of The Turquoise Table awhile back and really loved the concept of being a “front yard person.” This basically means that you make an intentional effort to be in your front yard, where you are going to encounter people. In the Pacific Northwest this can be tricky if you have no front yard, but if you do, spend more time there. Don’t hide in the backyard!
My personal dream is to someday have a turquoise table in my front yard, but first I have to convince my husband it won’t be annoying to move when he has to mow!
Popsicles or Baked Goods
On several of the hot days this summer we have walked around the block delivering root beer popsicles to our neighbors. This had very mixed reactions. We found many neighbors to be gone, or they maybe watched from their doorbell camera, had no idea who I was and didn’t answer the door. There were a few neighbors outside weeding and I offered them a popsicle but they looked at me like I was offering them drugs so we went on our way. I went out with 10 popsicles and came home with 9. One small child accepted one. I couldn’t tell if his parents were scared or not. I haven’t seen them again to say Hi and reassure them I am a friendly neighbor. They probably threw it away when they got inside.
Thankfully I am very persistent. There were a couple neighbors in particular I really wanted to meet so I decided to bake some banana bread and make another attempt. Baked the banana bread and took my super cute daughter with me to deliver. One neighbor was home so we delivered the banana bread and chatted for awhile. Victory! It was a great conversation and connection and I know when we see each other outside in the future we’ll chat further. The second neighbor was not home. I will try again later!
Tip: Don’t give up
Invite Them Over Via the Mailbox
Later this summer I am going to host a Norwex party at my house and invite the neighborhood ladies over for cleaning tips & cupcakes. We all need to clean and we all really should be eating cupcakes. I am hoping I get a few neighbors to respond. I used hosting this type of party as a way to have a reason to invite people over, but you could easily just host a small gathering for no reason at all. Pop the invitations in their mailboxes. The worst that can happen is no response. I tend to like hosting this type of thing because I don’t have to do all of the hosting, which I wouldn’t say is really a huge gift of mine. Win/win.
Here are my biggest takeaways: Don’t give up. People are busy and it will likely take them awhile to warm up. Give them food. People like it when you give them food. Make sure you wave when you see them on the street so they can start to recognize you. You have to be intentional because you are busy too. Build in small things you can do to make yourself known in your community. Walk around.
I want to challenge you to build relationship where you are. We can change the world with relationship. I truly believe it. Let’s get off social media, away from our phones and interact with one another. Let’s learn to have true, real conversations again. I think it could make all the difference in the world. Guess what? It’s starts with you! What can you do today to meet one of your neighbors? Give it a try and report back!
