Old and Friends New Friends - The Bridge of Kindness
by Karen Bare
I begin every day by writing three things in my gratitude journal. That practice is followed by a reflection writing that helps me center my day. Recently one of the prompts asked me to reflect on an act of kindness that I would never forget. There were several that immediately came to mind, but I will focus on the most recent. What follows is a portion of my kindness reflection.
In September of 2019 my husband, Bob, and I took a leap of faith and decided to buy property in Sedona as our place of retirement after visiting only a few times. Crazy, right? Well, it got a whole lot crazier! We began the process of building a house with no intentions of moving right away because Bob was still working and was at least a year and a half away from retirement. Then the pandemic hit. At the time I was doing some subbing in the local schools and that stopped when Ohio went into lockdown. Bob’s office was on again, off again working remote. By the end of the summer of 2020, we thought if Bob can work anywhere, why can’t he work in Arizona? Yes, getting up at 4:30 for a 7:30 meeting would be less than pleasant, but why not? Arizona winters beat Ohio winters, hands down!
Long story short, we decided to put our house on the market with nothing to lose. It sold for over asking price in 8 hours. We were shocked! We didn’t think we would sell right away in the middle of a pandemic. In 60 days, we would be leaving our home of 26 years and heading west. The first act of kindness related to this story was the going away party our neighbors threw for us. Ohio was still in full lockdown, no gatherings of people outside your household and yet, our friends decided to send us off by bringing the street together to say goodbye. It seemed like an eternity since we gathered with other people! Being in full lockdown, they didn’t have to come together. We shared memories of the last 26 years. It was amazing! How would we ever replace these people who have been a part of our lives? As we loaded the last of our belongings on the truck on a gray day and closed the front door for the last time in November, it became clear how hard it would be to leave. Tears were shed, we waved goodbye to the friends on the street, and we headed west. It was scary and it was final. What had we done? We knew no one in Sedona. We also had to spend a 7-month stint in an apartment in Phoenix until our house was complete…. Oh boy!
Our leap of faith was challenging, no doubt about it, but finally the day would come when we would move into our new home. June 28th 2021 was the day we moved into our home. As I pulled into the driveway, the smoke from the wildfires were visible over Little Sugar Loaf and the area was in a Ready, Set order from the fire department. We were still in the middle of a pandemic. What have we done? Equally unsettling was the fear of not knowing anyone and trying to figure out how to fit in to our new community.
Within a week of moving in, we discovered the kindness of this new community. One of our neighbors reached out to us and invited us to a gathering to meet some other neighbors. in the next week, another neighbor did the same. We were meeting people in the middle of a pandemic! We recognized how risky those gatherings were for everyone involved and we did not take these events for granted. We were strangers. We were not owed anything other than a hello on the street. It was wonderful. Because of the kindness of our new neighbors, we knew everything would be ok. We were beginning to find our way in Sedona.
I have always valued my friendships and one of the hardest things about moving across the country was leaving those personal connections behind. Since moving here, we have become involved in various activities and everyone we have met has gone out of their way to make us feel welcomed. The magic of Sedona goes beyond the Red Rocks and the natural beauty. The magic of Sedona is in its people and in the community. To bring the story full circle, I will never forget the kindness I have been shown by the people I have met in Sedona. No matter where your leap of faith takes you, people are kind.
In September of 2019 my husband, Bob, and I took a leap of faith and decided to buy property in Sedona as our place of retirement after visiting only a few times. Crazy, right? Well, it got a whole lot crazier! We began the process of building a house with no intentions of moving right away because Bob was still working and was at least a year and a half away from retirement. Then the pandemic hit. At the time I was doing some subbing in the local schools and that stopped when Ohio went into lockdown. Bob’s office was on again, off again working remote. By the end of the summer of 2020, we thought if Bob can work anywhere, why can’t he work in Arizona? Yes, getting up at 4:30 for a 7:30 meeting would be less than pleasant, but why not? Arizona winters beat Ohio winters, hands down!
Long story short, we decided to put our house on the market with nothing to lose. It sold for over asking price in 8 hours. We were shocked! We didn’t think we would sell right away in the middle of a pandemic. In 60 days, we would be leaving our home of 26 years and heading west. The first act of kindness related to this story was the going away party our neighbors threw for us. Ohio was still in full lockdown, no gatherings of people outside your household and yet, our friends decided to send us off by bringing the street together to say goodbye. It seemed like an eternity since we gathered with other people! Being in full lockdown, they didn’t have to come together. We shared memories of the last 26 years. It was amazing! How would we ever replace these people who have been a part of our lives? As we loaded the last of our belongings on the truck on a gray day and closed the front door for the last time in November, it became clear how hard it would be to leave. Tears were shed, we waved goodbye to the friends on the street, and we headed west. It was scary and it was final. What had we done? We knew no one in Sedona. We also had to spend a 7-month stint in an apartment in Phoenix until our house was complete…. Oh boy!
Our leap of faith was challenging, no doubt about it, but finally the day would come when we would move into our new home. June 28th 2021 was the day we moved into our home. As I pulled into the driveway, the smoke from the wildfires were visible over Little Sugar Loaf and the area was in a Ready, Set order from the fire department. We were still in the middle of a pandemic. What have we done? Equally unsettling was the fear of not knowing anyone and trying to figure out how to fit in to our new community.
Within a week of moving in, we discovered the kindness of this new community. One of our neighbors reached out to us and invited us to a gathering to meet some other neighbors. in the next week, another neighbor did the same. We were meeting people in the middle of a pandemic! We recognized how risky those gatherings were for everyone involved and we did not take these events for granted. We were strangers. We were not owed anything other than a hello on the street. It was wonderful. Because of the kindness of our new neighbors, we knew everything would be ok. We were beginning to find our way in Sedona.
I have always valued my friendships and one of the hardest things about moving across the country was leaving those personal connections behind. Since moving here, we have become involved in various activities and everyone we have met has gone out of their way to make us feel welcomed. The magic of Sedona goes beyond the Red Rocks and the natural beauty. The magic of Sedona is in its people and in the community. To bring the story full circle, I will never forget the kindness I have been shown by the people I have met in Sedona. No matter where your leap of faith takes you, people are kind.