My minde to me a kingdom is:
Such perfect joy therein I finde
As far exceeds all earthly blisse
That God or nature hath assignede.
When we became apartment dwellers back in 2011, we welcomed the change with open arms. After so many years of being home owners, it felt good not to worry about the daily upkeep. There were no more woes of weekly lawn care or cleaning out the gutters. When the snow storms hit, we came home to shoveled sidewalks. If something major broke, we just dialed l-a-n-d-lo-r-d. It felt good to be an apartment dweller.
For several years, we were blessed with great neighbors. Everyone cared and respected each other. Then one day, someone moved out and a neighbor from hell moved in. That's all it took to disrupt the harmony.
There are people out there who only care about themselves and show little or no respect for everyone else. They are not mean people who are intentionally being disrespectful to their neighbors, they just see themselves. It's their needs that matter. For instance, a neighbor of ours left her laundry in the washing machine for several days. It never occurred to her that maybe the other tenants would need to use the laundry facilities. Or they vacuum at 2 a.m., who does that?
Since moving into this place, I have come to realize there is a pattern to these good neighbors/bad neighbors. First, one has good neighbors, then a bad one moves in and so on and on. The sequence actually rotates them in and out like a lottery.
We are in the bad neighbor stage. Except this time, we actually have two of them, one above us and one below us. We are sandwiched in between them and when is quiet, then the other starts up. It never ends, folks. Never.
Occasionally, my mood shifts to the dark side and I vow never to bother making friends with any of the neighbors. When they move in, I won't introduce myself or even care what they are about. Of course, that feeling never continues. One cannot change character. I have always made it a priority to knock on new neighbors door and welcome them to the building. If they have children, we remember them on holidays, especially the single moms. Boy, do I have a heart for single moms. Always have and always will. Extra servings laying around? It's going to that single mom. Why should I stop because of a few rotten apples?
Have a blessed day everyone.
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