Being Neighborly

Recently when I was on my walk with our dog around the big loop, I was thinking about how Travis Country is about the same size, if not larger, than my hometown of Liberty,Texas.  Travis Country has many of the same charms of a small close-knit town.  

We have lived in our same house in Travis Country for over twenty years, and it is nice to reflect on how things have changed but also how they have stayed the same during this time.  We’ve had most of the same neighbors for all these years.  The new neighbors that have taken the place of the previous ones have fit right in and embraced the TC way of life. Our little pocket of streets has a strong community bond that I treasure.

When thinking about the similarities between my hometown and Travis Country and its “small town” feel, I think about how people treat each other by being helpful and friendly. Just last weekend our daughter and my husband were building an entire bedroom set from IKEA.  I mentioned it to a neighbor and he promptly went into his garage, grabbed a set of tools, and said “these are all the IKEA specific tools you will need in order to get that job done easily and well”.  Both my husband and daughter were so grateful for the use of those tools.  

And when I take my dog on my early evening walks around the block, there’s always one or two friendly neighbors that I run into that are quick to offer a cold beverage and neighborly conversation.  As TC neighbors, we all watch out for, and take care of each other. If anyone is going to be out of town, or needs some type of assistance, like taking the trash to the curb, or picking up packages off the front porch, we all share with helping each other. Simple tasks that are helpful to those around you are a nice way to be useful and a good neighbor.  

One particularly special memory I love is when our girls were babies and my husband was traveling for work, I asked our older neighbor who had kids in college at the time if she would be willing to come over in the evenings and hold the baby while I did the nightly routine with her older sister.  The neighbor and the baby she held still have a special bond going on twenty years between them from the time they spent rocking on the back porch swing. This makes me happy to think about as I am now the older neighbor with kids in college, and I would like to help a neighbor in much the same way.  

The new year is well underway, and aspirations of doing great things in 2023 are wonderful to consider, but looking forward to the small things that have a great impact on those around you is worthy too. It might not seem like much to you, but asking an elderly neighbor to see if they would like for you to roll their trash containers to the street for them might be a big deal to them. Maybe check to see if your neighbor with small children needs a little break and you can help them out.  Or, just a friendly phone call to check in with a neighbor and see how they are doing and if they need help with anything, like going to the grocery store and picking up their curbside order for them.  I have been thinking of all these things and how they relate to my small town because I am so very grateful for the people who help my mom out on a daily basis by taking her to the grocery store, having a meal with her in the evenings that they both prepared together, or even how they make plans to play a card game on Sunday afternoon together, just to have some comradery and a sense of community.  

Travis Country has that with our pools and parks and gathering spaces, but also check to see if the people closest to you, or somewhere within the three-mile loop that encompasses our neighborhood, could use your help or just a friendly hello.