Last week we lost our kitten.
He’s only 6 months old & has only been with us a couple of months. He’d never been outside in the dark, let alone overnight so we were all deeply concerned & the kids were distraught. We toured the neighbourhood for hours looking for him & knocking on doors.
Whilst we didn’t find him, we were met with such an out pouring of support, kindness, suggestions & advise & plenty of reassurances.
One of my neighbours who I have only chatted 2 twice before insisted on joining me on the search. Another posted on the street what’s app group. Another offered to make flyers. Someone else looked for him whilst they were on their dog walk. The local vicar took my details, left his backdoor open with some roast chicken to tempt him in & kept me updated throughout the evening.
It made me really reflect on the generosity & kindness of both friends & strangers. We were still in lockdown, I didn’t expect anyone to open their doors, let alone engage with a masked random standing on their doorstep. And on the wonders of community.
We moved back into town after an eventful & difficult lockdown (we’re not unique it has been difficult for many) & immediately, after a fairly fraught few months, felt at home.
We all enjoy being able to walk everywhere. The kids adore the freedom & independence of walking to school & back. I love having the green hills of Greenhill surrounding us for our daily dog walks.
But it is the sense of community that we all really love. We now live only minutes away from some of our closest friends here in Evesham & that sense of support, security & belonging is priceless.
It reminds us a lot of our previous lives. No, not those kind of previous lives, although I do believe in them, (that’s fodder perhaps for another blog), no, our previous lives before we came back to the UK.
Before we returned to the UK 3 years ago, we lived overseas. The wonderful thing about the expat community is that wherever you go, you are immediately swept up by people who know exactly what you are going through. They all understand what it is like to be thousands of miles away from your nearest & dearest & you make friends deeply & quickly. Your friends very much become your family.
We have been blessed to meet some amazing people & make some wonderful friends, many of whom are still very much a part of our lives today. They continue to be a wonderful source of friendship, support, love & joy & of course a sense of community even across the miles.
Our friends in Germany have taken to calling themselves my ‘Board of Directors’ & any problems I encounter or doubts about what course of action to take, I’m instructed to seek their counsel & take them up on this kind offer. After all they were with me through major lung surgery & the recovery & during my hospitalisation for severe mental ill health & through that much longer journey back to wellness. They have been with us through thick & thin, through the toughest of tough times. They supported from afar during my divorce & sent the troops in when it ended up in court. And they are always there to celebrate the triumphs & successes too.
Our community right here on our doorstep, really reminds us of the community we had in Bangkok…the tropical weather & swimming pool apart! Just like over there, we have several of our closest friends within a 5 min walk from our house. One family has been our childcare bubble, which as a single parent I’m allowed, & this has been invaluable to both families during this recent lockdown.
But it’s the unexpected rendevous’ on the school run or on our way home from a dog walk & those valuable moments of connection that are priceless, especially during lockdown. They remind me fondly of the spontaneity of bumping into friends around the Moobaan in Bangkok & the invaluable support those friends gave me during another testing time, as my marriage was coming to an end.
Friends, community & connection are all so very important & utterly priceless especially in these times. Even when we can’t meet our friends properly, bumping into them when we’re out & about has given us such a lift to our spirits.
Community, connection & friendships, they have served us so well over the years. We are absolutely blessed and extremely grateful. It has made me appreciate how everyone has a part to play in our lives. Everyone in our communities has a role to play just as we have in theirs…it takes a village as Jay Shetty notes in his wonderful book, Live Like a Monk. Indeed, before the German contingent announced their Board-ship status, we referred to each other as our village.
But there is one more thing I’d like to share about community & again I credit Jay Shetty with sharing it in his book: the circle of love. Every time we give out energy, whether it is love, kindness joy or anger & disappointment, that energy comes back to us.
Of course I believe this because I believe in the law of attraction, whatever energy we vibrate & project, comes back to us. The circle of love clarifies though that it doesn’t always come back to us from the person we gave it to. It can come back from a variety of sources. We have a tendency to expect it to come back from the person we gave it to, but that’s not how it works.
This was rather a light bulb moment, an aha moment, yes of course…it makes perfect sense! Utterly beautiful in it’s simplicity. This is why it’s important to have a community, we all serve different purposes & the the circle of love can revolve.
Oh and yes, the kitten did come back. He waltzed in the next morning nonchalantly, a look of hey what’s the drama etched on his feline features. But I believe that everything happens for a reason, so his escapades gave me a chance to reflect upon the beauty of our communities, something I think it is so important to remember during these times.