Our town

This morning as I walked to work my neighbor popped out of her back door and called my name.

I turned and saw her standing there in her pink bathrobe with matching slippers and earrings and I had to smile.

“Good morning!” she yelled. “And thanks again for dinner last night. I love you guys!”

“We love you too, Connie,” I yelled.

A little farther up the road, a friendly teller yanked open the side door of the corner bank and yelled, “Hey Laura! Be careful out there. Our parking lot is very slippery.”

“Will do,” I yelled back. “And thanks for the warning.”

If my home town isn’t the sweetest little city in the world, I don’t know what is. In the afternoon, I took the long way home and discovered a charming gift to the community hanging from a tree across the street from a local grade school.

“Free Poems” the note said. “Take them. Leave them.”

I peeked in and saw handwritten sheets carefully grouped into “poems for adults” and “poems for kids (of all ages)”. Free poems? Come on! I’m heading back there tomorrow to donate a couple of poems and a thank you note for the charming host.

I chatted briefly with our mail carrier, who celebrated our short February thaw by running his route in shirt sleeves and sensible boots. We agreed the mild air felt wonderful.

Later, as I made my way home, I ran into another neighbor who had her arms full of books, including “Salt to the Sea”, this year’s choice for Fox Cities Reads, our annual community book club.

“Great day to walk to the library,” I said.

“Oh, I always walk to the library,” she said. An avid library user, she also volunteers there and delivers books to housebound readers.

These ordinary, friendly folks made my day and I wanted to share them with you.

In Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Emily asks, “Does anyone realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?”

Happily, we do. Maybe not every, every minute.

But sometimes, on an ordinary Thursday, it feels good to realize life and the extraordinary beauty of simple, human kindness.