The Importance of the Neighbourhood "Bump"

Humans are adaptable, but there’s something, some tiredness or sadness that lingers at the back of my mind. To ease it, I try to get some fresh air. I distract my squirmy baby and slip his arms and feet into a fleece. I place a hat on his head, which he promptly pulls off. I clip him into his stroller, put the hat on his head again, and open the front door. We head down our sidewalk and he smiles from ear to ear as he realizes we’re going for a walk. He’s forgotten all about the hat. 

Before this happened, before physical distancing, before we did our part by staying at home, I had been feeling disconnected from my community. I would leave my neighbourhood and go for walks somewhere else, I would meet friends for coffee in other areas of the city, and my favourite grocery store wasn’t at all close to where I live. But it’s been three weeks since I drove my car and left my neighbourhood and this is the most connected I’ve felt in the three years of living here. 

On our first walk, I met Cindy. She talked to me from the top of her driveway while I rocked my stroller back and forth on the sidewalk. We made eachother laugh and when I ran into her again, we both said our days were made from this small, meaningful interaction. The next day, I saw chalk on the pavement up ahead. I rolled towards it and read: “What concert costs 45 cents?” I strolled a little further. “50 Cent featuring Nickelback”. I laughed and looked up at the house. In the window sat a mom and her kids on the back of their couch, watching for my reaction and laughing with me. I try to take that route now, to see what joke will come next.  Each walk I take is filled with folks waving from their stoops or placing encouraging messages in their windows or calling out “you hanging in there?”, and these little interactions, these minute connections have made me feel like everything will be okay. 

The last few weeks remind me that connection is so important, for our mental and physical well-being and that of our neighbours. The messages in the windows, the sidewalk chalk, the waves, they all add up, they make me want to walk, and when I get back home I feel happy and hopeful. Building communities where we bump into neighbours is essential, even if we “bump” into one another from 2 meters apart.

Written safely at home

By Katie Lore