Wonderful day in the neighborhood. Wonderful day for a neighbor. Won't you be my neighbor? The Bible says to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Maybe I just don't like myself. I'm still trying to learn to be a good neighbor. I know that biblically speaking everyone is our neighbor, but if I can't get the next door stuff right then how can I get the across the country stuff right?
In the first few years after moving to our current neighborhood we soon discovered that our neighbor across the street was doing and probably selling drugs. The house directly west was a rent house and we barely had time for neighboring. A few years later our neighbor next to the dealer was sent to prison for something that shall remain nameless in this blog. So then the argument could be made that times have changed and the gentle art of neighboring hasn't kept up with the times.
Not that I had a bad teacher. My dad was surely the best neighbor on the planet in his heyday. He would walk up and down the street after his work as a teacher and talk to folks and help them and he would wave and talk and just be mr. dang friendly neighbor. It continues to be the thing I most admire about him. We had other issues in our home with closesness and communication and such. Maybe this was his way of making up for his inability to communicate with his own family or maybe he was running. I don't know because he wont' say.
Maybe that is the reason my number one concern in the dynamics that make up my family is communication. Therefore my neighboring has suffered. I don't have an equal family to neighbor ratio. Maybe I want too much but I believe that if someone is speaking to me then I should try my darndest to pay attention and they in turn should remember our conversation. I do expect too much.
The reason I started this blog-journal was two-fold. I was becoming more and more frustrated with the conversations I was having with friends and family. Seems like all we care about is impressing each other with what we know. Listening is a dying art. Understanding as a form of human interaction seems to be also dead. For those of us in our circle of bloggers we have hopefully found a few individuals who also have time to read, listen, and respond. For that I thank you. Secondly, after the onset of my heart condition last year I noticed severe lapses in my memory and my ability to communicate verbally. This has been a good exercise/therapy for me to have some kind of sounding board and for those of you who put up with it and me I also thank you.
THE GAME IS STILL ON. CLUE #1. IT IS A FOUR LETTER WORD.
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21 comments:
Udeh? Ulan? Uqor? Uqod?
C'mon, be neighborly and give us another clue!
Uren? Uzor? Upor? Ubul? Urie? Ufuk? Umar? Uros? Uqur? Unai? Unni? Usko? Uxio?
Do you want my street address or a p.o.box?
James 1:19 "...let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak..." NKJV
Seeker those names are better thank my actual real middle name. Maybe it isn't so unusual after all. There will be another clue tomorrow sometime.
Anne, I was thinking of that verse, but couldn't remember where it was. Thanks
Hi there. Thanks for visiting my blog. Feel free to come by and post anytime you like. I notice you like Phil Keaggy. My husband plays the guitar. He got a Phil Keaggy DVD for Christmas and is absolutely in love with it.
okay, some of seekers guesses are sort of bordering on strange. so here's mine.
ubie uber unah my stomach hurts from an entire berry pie, when will i learn.
okay, your post today really is right along the lines of what i've been thinking about. but i'm sort of reading between the lines, and wondering if you got snubbed by one of your neighbors recently?
i'm a listener. i'm a human tape recorder. i remember everything. so don't ever tell me something if you don't want it coming back on you down the road.
but i agree with you, and thanks anne, from me too for remembering that verse. because listening is a lost art. and deserves an entire post all its own. i am continually amazed at the questions people ask me. and lately, i've been sort of grumpy, and i just don't answer the dumb questions. i ignore people.
i like my blogger friends. you guys all stopped by yesterday to wish me a merry christmas. most of my so called friends don't even do that. cept one, and i wouldn't answer the phone, cause i was grouchy, and i never answer the phone when i'm grouchy, cause it puts people off.
thanks uncle joe. and why haven't you visited my blog today. your practically the only one who hasn't. i'm really hurt. the tears are flowing like milk and honey
helloooooooooooooooooo
I agree that an area we need improvement is listening. I tend to get so busy (Sometimes self imposed) that I feel I don't have time to listen effectively. I know I have a lot to work on in the coming years, and I hope I have taken steps recently to change the way I approach communication. I have stepped outside my comfort zone and have been the initiator. I have also tried to lower my expectations of conversations. I tend to put people on pedastals and anticipate the way they will respond. WHen they don't, I am confused and let down. I also have to agree that we disagree on occasion.
Blogging has given me an outlet for some of my feelings, given me insight to loved one's thoughts and given me an opportunity to be a part of their lives in a new and unique way. This is meaningful communication to me. It keeps me thinking, keeps me laughing and tapping into my creativity and my humor. (So what if it is potty humor?!)I am not an auditory learner. Never have been and to learn something when I hear it, I must engage myself in repeating it, or animating it. I am a visual/kinesthetic learner and this is a wondeful way for me to remember......(just in case you wanted a full analysis/explanation) When I am listening, unless I am taking notes, my mind is wandering....."where did she get those earrings? I wonder how much she paid for them? Were they a gift? What is her husbands name? Hmmm. My stomach growled, what did I eat for breakfast? Are we out of milk? WHat time is it? Huh??? Were you talking to me?"
Anyway, Thank you Joe for letting me in, letting me play with you and your friends and otherwise tag-a-long like an annoying little sister. :o) You have no idea how fun this is to me.....
Now I gotta get to work!
My reasons for blogging are that although I'm blessed with many friends and loved ones, only my parents 'get' me, and even then they often don't.
So, I went blogging to find other likeminded souls. Blogging is a blessing, isn't it?
You're right about neighbors, but I also don't "cast my pearls before swine." I'll reach out, but only so much.
BTW, you and Josefina are now in my links. ;o)
1Jo 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
This day and age it seems to be harder and harder to do just this. People are not willing to be as open to open greetings, or welcoming. They hang their heads down and move on with what it is they are doing. If you make eye contact, nod with a smile...you walk away wondering if they thought you were weird or worse.
Folks use to greet each other with such kind words and they meant it. Now days you never know what lies behind the kindness. Could they want something from me, what are they up to. What can of worms have I opened now. Where does this come from? Hummmmm let's see, could it be from the abuse that we have been given when trying to be kind and neighborly, taken advantage of because we just CAN NOT say NO! How are we to over come this and become more neighborly? Honestly I don't know for I've learned the hard way that if you allow it you WILL be taken advantage of to the fullest extent, never sure if it was intended to be that from the other end but it surely ends up being that totally.
Do I just stop being friendly, neighborly, as I truly should be Biblically. Where are the boundaries.
I think this is where It all gets blurred to me. I want to be kind, friendly but have been burned time and time again that I've become the one many times of having my head down, moving along on my own journey.
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Yes, there is this thing called serve. That too becomes a term abused. Where is that line between being a servant and being taken advantage...
Ok I have now put a damper on your blogg. Sorry but this just poured out of me.
Oh and your middle name....
It does start with an U and ends with a well I'd tell ya if I could spell it LOL !
how are you and prayerful mom acquainted?
i relate to her really well, and what she said.
but i have some advice. there are some awesome books at the christian book store near you
a series called boundaries by dr henry cloud and some other guy, "townsend". these books are for dating, marriage, kids, etc. and they are really good, and the are also really, really good.
i recommend them for all of you struggling with this issue uncle joe brought up, and for you prayerful mom, cause i hear you on letting people use you. its really hard because you want to do the godly thing, but how much is too much, and where do you draw the line.
we all need healthy boundaries, and i believe we could avoid a lot of pain.
so my recommendation for our book club read is the boundaries books. they can also be purchased on half.com for less money.
did i say book club? sorry, guess it was wishful thinking.
Stangely enough blogging has been a blessing, although it is hard to explain to some folks why I/we do it.
The first blog that I found that piqued my interest was actually Saur's. A relative started a movie review blog and I hit next blog and there she was. Weird how that worked out like that.
you didn't answer my quesitons. i need to have my questions answered, or i will get even more annoying, if that is possible
Please submit all future question in written form and mail them to:
The Jay Leno Show
1222 Johnny Carson Dr.
555 Rodeo Drive
Bairbonk Cauliflower, br-549
dude, i thought i was the only one who knew about BR549. my phone number in print. nobody be callin now. i don' wanno weirdos a callin may
sorry bout all the deleted comments, blogger is not cooperating today, and i got a little ticked. if things don't happen in .009 seconds, i get impatient
I enjoy popping in on people like this, seeing what they write about their lives, ordinary and normal and casual and decent kinds of people.
Then again, some of those same people are also Presbyterians. How does that happen? How is it that normal and decent people end up giving money to murderers, sending off their children to cavort with killers, who scream anti-Semitic propaganda and pose for cameras, pose for their idiot friends, denouncing other people much like themselves only to make a point or two in the eyes of their friends at the next cocktail party? By God, I don't care if I'm an atheist, I'm ashamed of most Christians. What a vile and disgusting lot many of them are.
You, though, seem like a nice enough guy. I just hope you're not a Presbyterian. And if you are I hope you give it up.
(My second guess was "Utah.")
I kinda think that blogging has become something like what sitting on the porch of the General Store and talking for hours used to be. Only it's global, and is that cool, or what?
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