Love thy neighbor…from six feet away

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

-Fred Rogers

I stopped watching and reading the news after my children were born. With the hormones and sleep deprivation I found it was just too much. It seemed the only focus was on the negative things happening in the world. I couldn’t consume that during that time of my life.

Since the Coronavirus I’ve found myself slipping into a pattern of checking the news. It’s necessary to an extent, to stay informed and safe throughout all this, but it’s also easy to get caught up in the turmoil.

It made me think about how much positive news that is not being reported. That despite this global crisis there are a lot of people doing a lot of good to help each other. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to make for good headlines.

In life before Coronavirus, I’ve been blessed with situations where people have just showed up to help without being ask. I live in a particular wonderful neighborhood where this has happened to our family on many occasion. Some examples….

Our neighbors checked on us when a plow took out our mailbox while we were gone on vacation. Upon learning we were away they gathered our mail then snow blowed and shoveled our walk way so we didn’t have to come back to the mess.

Another one of our neighbors then surprised us and fixed that broken mailbox.

Last year when our whole family got the flu one of our neighbors dropped off a bag full of meals and goodies on our doorstep with only a text from her to let me know that they were there.

When our beloved family dog passed away a neighbor showed up with flowers and cupcakes. When Anika started kindergarten a neighbor knew I was having a difficult time and she also showed up with flowers.

One of our neighbors is a real life Miss Rumphius. Multiple years in a row she’s planted bulbs for us around our yard that surprise us when they bloom in the spring and bring our family such joy.

I could go on and on with these personal examples, but the point is that there are people in the world who will step up to help without being asked. They are not looking for acknowledgement or accolades. This is when life is normal and there are no pandemics. I strongly believe during this crazy time the world is especially full of this. Even if it’s not being as heavily reported on as the bad stuff.

From the healthcare professionals putting themselves on the front line and saving lives everyday at the risk of their own, the teachers and administrators who are working tirelessly to completely rethink the way we teach literally with a moments notice to develop remote learning programs and continue to educate our children while at home, the police officers, fire department, package and mail delivery drivers, grocery store employees, the list goes on and on.

I’ve heard lovely stories about regular people helping others. People buying groceries and delivering it to high risk members of the community, people sewing face masks, people leaving side walk chalk notes in front of their neighbors houses to help boost morale and brighten their day.

I’m choosing to focus on these stories as much as I can. It’s helping me remember despite this mess, there is so much good. We are all a community. We are all in this together, even if we have to stay at least six feet away from each other.