Ways to Meet Your Neighbors # 5

Written By Carolyn Thorsen Blackhurst

Paint your old garden bench a pretty robin egg blue color and make a heart shaped pollinator friendship garden for people to come sit and enjoy.

This was our two day project together. It’s fun to dig in the dirt with Scott and Yoda. We did keep our clothes on, World Naked Gardening Day wasn’t until May.

I met a sweet elderly neighbor who Yoda and I always wave to when we walk by her house. She stopped by in her car to tell me how lovely the garden looked and said she could see the blue bench from her house. Lorraine also told me about her flowers and her back patio. She smelled of powdery perfume.

I want to add an “everyone is welcome here” sign by the bench so people know they can come and rest under our tree in the shade. It is an ash tree which is a host plant for western tiger swallowtail butterflies.

We’ll add more rocks and drought resistant pollinator plants as time goes by. Soon the bees and butterflies will come, hopefully more neighbors too. We live just off of Eagle Rd so the traffic is very noisy. But the birds and squirrels still come for food and water.

I want to walk in love and leave a trail of flowers behind when I fly off to heaven someday, just like my parents did. We’re only here for a short time, and tomorrow isn’t promised. I want to leave soft footprints of kindness and compassion.

Friends, you are welcome to come and rest on our bench anytime.

Carolyn Thorsen Blackhurst

My friend, Carolyn Thorsen Blackhurst, is a gem. She doesn’t just walk through life with sturdy steps and messy hands, she skips and paints along the way making you think she might be distracted. You would be wrong. She is paying very close attention. Carolyn watches her little old dog Yoda struggle to thrive and the next thing you know, she’s made a star out of him. She regularly enchants her grandkids and lets them do the same for her with each encounter. You should know she honors World Naked Gardening Day religiously with her husband each year. You will often see her glorious blond hair flying by with a camera in hand trying to capture everyone else’s glory. And while her new neighbors are slipping into their houses and closing their doors, she plots and prays for a way to make the doors all open up. She frequently posts observations of her ordinary and magical life on Facebook that make readers fall over laughing and be brought to tears all in one piece. When I saw her series about how to meet her neighbors I asked if she would let me borrow one to post here so you could drink in a little of her extraordinary spirit, and, of course, she said a resounding “YES!” as only she can.

Thank you to Carolyn for being our first Guest Blogger! And may we all “walk in love and leave a trail of flowers [and kindness] behind…”. May it be so. ~dpd oxo

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