Getting To Know Your Neighbors Creates Community

In our fast-paced, stress-filled world we often don't create the opportunities that we need 

in order to get to know our neighbors. In days past, good neighbor relations were the staple 

of every strong community. Being able to share life's experiences, both good and bad, with 

those who live so close to us was once considered one of life's greatest blessings. 

 These days it is the exception rather than the rule to take the time to create strong 

relationships with the people we share our community with...and we are each the poorer 

because of it. Each one of us has a story to tell, a hand to lend, a laugh to share, and 

friendship to give. What keeps us from extending so much of ourselves to the families that 

live around our own may be those same things that prevent us from experiencing many of 

the great blessings of our parents or of our youth: A changing world that focuses more on the 

individual than the family and the need to remain isolated in order to feel "safe and secure." 

 Someone once said, "If you always do the things you did, you'll always get the things you 

got." If we want to grow as a community then we have to risk breaking free from the bonds of 

isolation that are so easily created by and for us. We must reach out to our neighbors and let 

them know that they matter and that we care. If we do that, even in the most seemingly 

insignificant of ways - like a wave as we pass on the street - then we are moving toward a 

better community and a better way to live. 

 Just because our culture has pushed us away from ourselves doesn't mean it is right, 

it just means that we have to work that much harder in order to reconnect with one another 

and create a better environment in which to live.