Slow Down and Watch the Sprinklers

When I was a senior in high school my family moved to a really small town. Really small. Population less than 700. I thought I’d died and gone to hell. The city was 3 miles away, and my part time job did not pay enough for gas for ‘frivolous’ trips to see friends. Our evening entertainment began to be sitting on the front porch of our house counting the cars that drove by. We had TV but it was the very early ‘70s – there were only 2 channels and frankly, counting cars was usually better. Seriously. That is what we did – sat on the porch swing and counted cars. On a good night there might be three to six. On a slow night, well it was slow.

I never thought I’d look back fondly on those days. But I’m older and wiser now, and have a renewed appreciation for sitting out front of the house watching the world go by. Nowadays it’s not as common to know your neighbors, and I miss that. Tonight my husband and I spent some time outside trying to assess the problem with our sprinkler system. Problem is too strong a word of course – we have a lovely home in a beautiful neighborhood, and we have a sprinkler system – obviously we don’t have a ‘real’ problem. But there are some leaks and we decided to run the zones while we watched to isolate the issues.

It’s August, not the best time to sit outside. Most of our neighbors were out of town, not outside in their yards. But we pulled out the folding chairs and got to talking as we watched. It began to be a nice time of debriefing, using our brains for conversation rather than vegging out in front of the TV. I noticed the cars whizzing by on our busy street and thought, ‘they should slow down and watch the sprinklers.’

Sir Duke was with us of course, and as he wandered through the sprinklers he detoured to greet anyone coming down the sidewalk. Focused joggers pushing strollers, young girls walking, fearful of the big black dog, non-dog people power walking with ear buds plugged in – Duke gave them all the same opportunity to greet him. Then he hit the jackpot. A young man with a beautiful tall white Lab Pyrenees mix came up the walk. Duke was immediately enamored. There was much sniffing, tail wagging, circling, more sniffing – which allowed us humans to introduce ourselves. We got to know a wonderful neighbor, only one street away, with children the age of our grands and a dog named Ziva who instantly befriended Duke. Such an enjoyable visit with someone who started out as stranger and ended with “see you next time.” He told us which house was theirs and we volunteered to watch dog and/or kids if they needed – we love dogs and kids. Win win.

A new connection made, a budding friendship started, all because we slowed down enough to sit and watch the sprinklers. I highly recommend it. Even if you don’t have sprinklers, you probably have a front porch and I know you’ve got a chair. Slow down. Sit. Watch. And see how God will make the connect – all you have to do is be available.