The Julian Way

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Neighboring During a Pandemic

What does neighboring look like during a global pandemic?

The chorus from Hamilton the Musical keeps running through my head,

“The world turned upside down
The world turned upside down
The world turned upside down
The world turned upside down
Down, down, down, down”

Just a week ago I was happily scooting around town at my leisure without real concern. Today I’m, like most other people I know, at home for the foreseeable future trying to write this blog post while also parenting a kid who is bouncing off the walls!

With that in mind, I’ve started seeing some neighborly responses that I wanted to lift up, and I intend to continue to add to this post as I find more examples of great neighboring during a pandemic.

If you find any great examples of neighboring tweet me @barlowthompson, facebook me @adambarlowthompson, or email me at adam@neighboringmovement.org.

Here are examples of neighboring during a Pandemic.

Italians singing from their balconies

This has made the popular media rounds quite a bit, but it is simply beautiful. Here is one article highlighting neighbors encouraging each other from an appropriate distance. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/italians-sing-patriotic-songs-from-their-balconies-during-coronavirus-lockdown

Neighbors weaving social fabric for support

Jeff is a pastor who participated in one of our Good Neighbor Experiment cohorts. He shared this post on Facebook.

This great post from Eden Projects Community in the UK

The Eden Project is a group in the UK that creates public spaces that encourage connection and beauty. They created this fantastic poster that can be downloaded and shared for free. (https://www.edenprojectcommunities.com/community-action-response). I found it on Facebook through the Weave…who you should definitely be following!

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Church shares lunches

Pastor Alex Russow and his church Silver Lake UMC are sharing lunches while kids are not in school.

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Distance Festival

One friend put this post on her neighborhood Facebook group and it seemed to be well received.

“I posted this, but my neighbors have taken it up 6 notches. One is even trying to get permission to use some leftover fireworks.”


Do you have a great story of someone neighboring during this pandemic?

Send your story to Adam! Tweet me @barlowthompson, Facebook me @adambarlowthompson, or email me at adam@neighboringmovement.org.