Walk the Neighborhood
Something happens to you when you walk. Everything you need to know about loving your neighbors can be discovered on a walk.
Don’t believe me? Try it. Whether you’re back to the office or still working-from-home, take off 20 minutes early one day this week and go on a walk around your neighborhood. Work or home neighborhood, it doesn’t matter. You’ll discover important realities on both.
Leave your phone behind and keep moving forward. Be fully present and take in everything with all of your senses: the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and even things to touch along the way. Pay close attention to the activity you observe. The rhythms of people moving about their day. I bet only a few minutes in, assuming your FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) doesn’t kick in, you will begin to notice things you don’t typically notice:
“I don’t remember seeing that building there. I’ve driven by here dozens of times.”
“Wow, that house is in rough shape. I wonder why they never mow their grass? I wonder who they are and what they are like? I have never really seen them outside before.”
“Oh no, another business closed down. Ugh, this is so sad. Wait a minute, let me see what the sign on their door says. ‘Closing down due to COVID-19, Looking for Work. Please contact us if you know someone hiring. We have a staff of five we are trying to place into future jobs.’ Hmm, I wonder how I can help?”
“Wow, those flowers are so beautiful. I have never seen a wildflower field so overgrown yet fully in bloom.”
I don’t know if it’s the act of leaving your familiar space, the fresh outside air, or the blood that pumps to your brain because of the exercise. But, something happens when you walk. Something magical. You begin to discover and rediscover. You begin to wonder and wander. You begin to see new things and see things in new ways.
Somehow things seem clearer and okay. Perspectives are gained and regained. Your head is simultaneously cleared and filled with thoughts. Your heart is filled with hope and bursts of energy. The simple act of breathing in oxygen from outside does something to your brain and body. It literally refreshes you physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.
And, you not only reconnect with yourself in those moments but with your neighborhood and neighbors. Just during these last nine weeks of working-from-home for our little family, we have seen neighbors we’ve never seen before and wondered, “who are they? They never go walking. Are they the ones who live in that pretty yellow house?” Or, “oh there’s that cute little boy who is always waving and smiling on his bike, I guess that’s his family. I wonder why his sister is in a wheelchair.” You begin to do one of the most valuable human activities that prior to COVID-19 was a thing of the past: notice.
Pre-COVID-19, we were too busy to notice good, beautiful, and lovely things. Instead, we noticed things that didn’t matter, were bad, negative, or downright unhealthy to us and others around us. With “extra time” on our hands and the space to see and hear more, it’s high time we begin the art of noticing even more.
The only way to perfect this art is to practice, practice, practice. So, go on a walk and notice your neighborhood and neighbors. Learn who they are, what they do, what they care about, how they live, work, and play, talk to them and with them, listen, listen, listen, discover what they love and hate, find out how you can help serve or lend a hand, pray for them on the spot or quietly later, seek to do good to them, celebrate what makes them different, give and be generous with your time, talent and money. Our walks as a family (me, my wife of 15 years, my three daughters — 12, 9, 2) have been not only life-giving to us for time together but helped us see and be seen like never before.
You wanna exegete your city, community, and neighborhood?
Go on a walk. Together. And often.
Faith Works is a fluid publication of ongoing discoveries on the journey of faith, work, home, and adventure. Because when we believe in every area of life, faith works.
