52 Weeks of Neighboring - Week 22

Neighboring Tip of the Week - At some point this week, slow down and notice something new about your neighborhood.

A couple of weeks ago, we presented a neighboring tip on making a list of some of your favorite things in your neighborhood. Now, this week, we encourage you to discover some new things about your neighborhood. Who knows, maybe these newly discovered things will become some of your favorite things in your neighborhood, too!

We think this tip is a fantastic one to experiment with in the midst of this pandemic, as there are probably lots of things in your neighborhood that have changed over the last few months that you may not have had a chance to notice yet. The hope is that this tip will allow us to become better informed of what is happening in our neighborhoods, help us to foster attitudes of thankfulness, and maybe even help us to discover the stories of our neighborhoods.

The tip is made up of two distinct parts that work together in order to accomplish the common goal:

1. Slow down - Before you can actually notice something new about your neighborhood, you have to create the space to do so. Obviously, this may look very different depending on the person. Maybe you set some time aside to be mindful of your neighborhood while still in your home. Maybe you walk the next time you need to get somewhere in your neighborhood that you might normally drive, bike, or run in order to get to. This can be anything that both keeps you from feeling rushed and puts you in a position to notice your neighborhood. No matter how this looks, we encourage you to set some time aside this week in order to do so.

2. Notice something new about your neighborhood - Now that you have already created the space to notice something new about your neighborhood, all that’s left is the easy part: notice! Again, this may look very different depending on the person, but all you have to do is employ your various senses in order to observe the neighborhood around you.

Have you ever been past something hundreds of times and never truly noticed it was there? It seems as if most everyone can recall a specific moment when they first noticed something they had been by countless times before. It’s just so easy to do! As humans, it seems all too easy to become caught up in our everyday experiences, or what we perceive as being part of “our lives”, instead of taking time to notice the life that surrounds us, the lives we impact, and the life we get to be a part of. By focusing on deadlines, destinations, and what is familiar to us, we end up missing out on what is happening all around us, what is new, what is beautiful! We hope this tip is one way that we can experience these new and beautiful things that are happening all around us.

Happy neighboring!