As Catherine mentioned in the last blog post, we recently held our quarterly Community Call. It helped me to remember the important value that we at The Neighboring Movement place on relationships. I think we all are now grasping the importance of connection after being thrown into the middle of a global pandemic, but, this recent call allowed me to reflect on those important relationships in my own life. 

There are obvious relationships in our lives like the one with our spouse, family, and closest friends, but there are also those that we often forget about. These can be the seemingly insignificant relationship with that girl that you frequently see at the gym or the grocery store clerk you always run into when you don’t look your best. Even as an extrovert it is sometimes difficult to say hi to these acquaintances, let alone strangers! Relationships are hard, especially with people we barely know. 

For me, I will often avoid eye contact with an acquaintance, in hopes that they don’t recognize me. But it never fails that I somehow end up in a conversation with them later, and all I can think about is if they saw me ignoring them! While it is important to nurture our most beloved relationships, we never know where these other trivial relationships will lead. 

Recently, I ran into a family friend, and rather than looking the other way I said hello and chatted with them. We had such a good talk that we ended up going to lunch that same day. We even agreed to get together once a month, to keep up with each other. It was a much-needed conversation filled with lots of unexpected joy and many laughs. 

While not all encounters are going to blossom into friendship, let’s open our eyes to the possibilities that lie within each one of those encounters. I’m striving to do better, and I hope you will too.