We moved into our current home almost 12 years ago, leaving our quaint neighborhood in West Monroe. It seems like yesterday. But Daniel was just a little tot back then, and now he's taller than me! We bought this house for a couple of reasons. First, I've had an office in my home ever since I started my own company back in 1994. It seems surreal, but when I started in this business, we hand-signed three reports for every lender. We hand-taped 35mm photos on to every report. We physically made maps, floor plans, plats, etc. Then we'd hand-deliver every report. Guys, that was just a decade ago! (Now, everything is done on the computer and all reports are sent via the internet.) Well, back 12 years ago, it seemed like I spent half my day driving back and forth across the Lea Joyner Bridge delivering reports. So, when we saw a chance to get back to Monroe, we jumped. Second, this house we found has the biggest back yard in our neighborhood! We had a nice big back yard in West Monroe, but it rolled and tumbled and mowing it was a huge chore.Well, our back yard here is awesome! Flat, lots of grass, and it was already fenced in when we bought the house. Plus there were really nice hedges surrounding the chain link fence. And the bi-level deck was lagniappe.
Our back door neighbor, an elderly lady named Mrs. Howe, used to watch me and Daniel jumping on our trampoline. When Daniel was little, he, Angie, and I spent a lot of time in our new back yard...not to mention all of the kids John and Meredith entertained out there. Mrs. Howe always told us that it brightened her day to see us playing as a family. Something occurred to me...Mrs. Howe hasn't said anything to us in a while. We've certainly been out back jumping on the trampoline, grilling, and entertaining on the deck. But I haven't seen Mrs. Howe...and then it dawned on me. She can't see us anymore! Our hedges are so tall that they have taken the form of a privacy fence. You'd have to get up really close to the fence and squint through the leaves to see us now. We've encapsulated our back yard with hedges.
Now I'm not writing this to say you should cut down your hedges. We all need our privacy from time to time. But I found it interesting that we allow things to grow in our lives that prevent us from having human interaction. Sometimes it takes on the form of hedges, like my ligustrums. And sometimes they take on the form of attitudes. We shun some people because we don't like them any more, don't approve of what they're doing, or don't like who they're spending time with. Any way you slice it, we're building a barrier that prevents us from communicating with one another. I think that's a tragedy. God put us on this planet to interact and help one another. In my opinion, the treasures we'll receive in heaven will be directly related to how we've built friendships here on earth.
So, don't be surprised to see my hedges trimmed back in the next few months. Drop by and see us sometime. If we don't answer the door, come around back to the deck. Chances are good that we are either grilling, jumping, or entertaining. And if you still don't see me, check the very back of the yard...I might be trying to talk with Mrs. Howe.
6 comments:
Dang, you may have to borrow that huge ladder from the theatre to reach the top of the hedges.
Thought provoking blog. I have my own set of hedges that I hide behind from time to time. I need to do some "chopping" myself.
Great blog, sir. It just makes me think about the more important things in life... friends and family.
Michael Wilkes meant to say the more important things in life...friends, family and winning Christopher awards. Also, it might be possible to find you and Meredith hiding in your neighbors carport.
Hedges?! I give you GOLD on my blog and all you have for me is pictures of hedges?!
Thank you oh enlightened one. :)
I'm not a bi level deck. That's rude.
And your post reminds me of a poem by the great Robert Frost...
MENDING WALL
Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
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