Since Adam’s last blog, Neighboring in a Pandemic, our entire state is now under a stay-at-home order. Although I know there are many hardships that come with this decision, I am so grateful we are taking this step to help flatten the curve. At the same time, I find myself with an increased desire to neighbor! Maybe you have felt the same? But what in the world does that look like? In many ways, staying home is the most neighborly thing we can do, at least for this season. But is there a way to safely make contact? I was so inspired by the neighborly responses Adam shared in his post that I couldn’t stop thinking and wondering what I could do.

I began taking down my winter decorations this week when, online, I noticed the rainbows children around the world were creating and placing in windows to add some brightness during these hard times. I found myself feeling nostalgic for the days when my children were young enough to dive into such a project and wishing I had a rainbow made by young hands on my front door. And then it hit me: maybe a child in my neighborhood would want to make a rainbow, and even share one with me! 

Since My next-door neighbor is over 60 years old and has MS, I have been delivering groceries to him and his wife, as safely as possible, since the coronavirus scare came to our state. She texts me her grocery list and we use vinyl bags I can wipe off with disinfectant wipes before and after I take them into the grocery store. I also disinfect my hands and the places my hands or the bags touch in the car before and after the delivery. It has brought me a lot of joy to ring their doorbell and dash. And that’s what gave me the idea to try a ‘disinfected ding-dong-dash experiment’ to reach the other neighbors closest to my front door – and try to get that rainbow I was coveting.

I made a quick trip to pick up a few supplies for the 4 houses with children (and made some cookies for all the houses with a note that included my cell phone number). Maybe, if I gave the children near me everything they needed to make a rainbow, I’d get one too! Here’s what I included in my ‘ding-dong dash’ experiment:

I was a little nervous walking around my neighborhood ringing doorbells and dashing as there are a few neighbors behind those doors I still haven’t met. But it was a lot of fun! After all, dashing (back to our houses or keeping social distance outside) is the right thing to do now.

Best of all, some rainbows soon appeared on my front door, one of them created by a 5-year-old neighbor, named Archer!

I was thinking the rainbows would be a great way to brighten up the neighborhood. I had no idea how much my heart needed brightening too. I smile every time I glance at my front door, especially since this is what Archer wrote on the back of his rainbow:

I hope you will smile today too! 

Karen