52 Weeks of Neighboring - Week 29

Neighboring Tip of the Week - Get reacquainted with a neighbor you’ve lost touch with.

Last week’s neighboring tip was to check in again with your neighbors. With that tip, which we repeat every seven weeks, our hope is that you would be encouraged to continually and regularly check in with your neighbors. But, we get it, it’s just easier to check in with certain neighbors than it is with others! If your daily schedules don’t align very well, or if the person is just more difficult for you to communicate with, in general, it can be easy to lose touch with a neighbor. If you have indeed lost touch with one of your neighbors, that’s alright! We would encourage you to give yourself grace in acknowledging this and then also encourage you to take heart. It’s never too late to reconnect with a neighbor, and we hope this tip inspires you to do so!

We think there has never been a better time to get reacquainted with a neighbor you’ve lost touch with. These vital connections, right around our homes, in a time when we are all home a bit more, are more important than ever! In this time of seemingly heightened global anxiety, let’s be present with our neighbors and allow them to be present to us. We can depend upon one another, and we would even go as far as saying that we must! And we get it, reconnecting with a neighbor you’ve lost touch with isn’t easy, and it’s awkward, too. But, crazily, talking about the pandemic can be a perfect entry back into conversation!

This week, our idea is this: If you’ve lost touch with one of your neighbors, be intentional about having a physically distanced conversation with them, or delivering a note to them, in which you can say something like this:

“Hey (insert their name if you remember it or ask for it again if you don’t)! My name is (insert your name). I’m your neighbor who lives at (insert your address)! I know we’ve met before, and I know this is awkward, but I haven’t done a very good job of keeping in touch, so I apologize for that. In the midst of this pandemic, I think it’s important that all of us neighbors stay connected, so I wanted to get back in touch with you. Here’s my phone number (give note with phone number or insert number here if writing all of this in a note), and please feel free to call anytime! Is there any way you would be willing to share your phone number with me? I hope we can chat more soon!”

What neighbor is going to be skeptical about your intentions in doing something like this? We encourage you, right now, to take heart and just do it! Get reacquainted with one of your neighbors, and just see where it leads. You may reconnect with a neighbor who will eventually become a good friend, or you may simply reconnect with a neighbor who now knows that you are willing to be in contact with them. But either way, isn’t it worth it?!

Happy neighboring!

P.S. If you do this, we want to hear all about it! Please don’t hesitate to reach out through any of the ways listed on our contact page. You can find the page here: https://neighboringmovement.org/contact-us-five.