Chocolate Pie

It's been a few days, sorry. I have actually been "chewing on" this post for a couple of days. Some of our new neighbors stopped by on Sunday evening with a delectable chocolate pie and a "welcome to the neighborhood". The chocolate pie has been delicious, most assuredly one of my favorite things about Kansas so far, but what is even better is the sentiment that it represents. This sweet couple's stated purpose was to welcome us to the neighborhood and to apologize for the glimpse of the neighborhood we had seen Thursday night at the annual homeowner's association meeting. While the meeting was a little less an opportunity for meeting my neighbors than I had hoped for, I hadn't thought much more about it. But here were some of my neighbors standing in my home, offering the work of their hands - her specialty, a homemade pie, to welcome us to this community. Community. We are now part of the Greenleaf community just by living at this address. We may or may not have any more than that in common with our neighbors. But it was important to these precious people to let us know that we are welcome here, and that because we are neighbors, we are part of the same community. They wanted us to know that this community is really not as cold and unfriendly as it may have appeared at that homeowner's meeting. It was important enough to them to not only take the time to ring our doorbell and introduce themselves, but to also put the time and the personal touch and energy into bringing a homemade chocolate pie with them. It was still warm! We enjoyed the short time we spent together, and we look forward to getting to know them better.