Every once in a while, I am reminded of community. I use that word a lot on this blog, often without thinking, but mostly as a way of describing people living together. As many of you here know, we are moving house. Our new place is about 20 paces from our old one and very much in the same neighbourhood as we have lived for the last 14 years.

We went out shopping on Saturday ( we bought our very first “real” sofa which is cheap and comfy and orange!) and on the way, dropped into our music equipment expert friend and all-round lovely person’s shop. We have hardly spent a penny there but we all appreciate music and friendship. He greeted us like family and then the love of my life asked him about the amplifier he dreams of. There were two amps on sale both of which he said we could have much cheaper than the shown price (without asking). We joked that they were still more than we could afford!

The love of my life mentioned that we were moving. Our friend looked aghast and asked where we were going. We said “oh, just down the road”. He was relieved “Ah, you are going to be nearer my shop!” We laughed.

After we explained our mission to go shopping for furniture for the new place, he said, “Come back later and take this amp to your new house. Try it out and if you like it, we’ll talk. If you don’t like that one, come and get the other one and try that”

He offered this without asking or prompting. He really doesn’t know us from anyone. He is doing this on trust. Because he likes us. And we like him.

We could move anywhere in Athens. Perhaps to a “nicer” neighbourhood. But our small family love the fact that there are people like this who like us and would be sad to see us go. And we would be sad to leave them.

So we are moving within our community, where nationality and race and ethnicity doesn’t matter as much as liking people you like and feeling close to people who are like you regardless of differences.

For me, this is hope…

Other neighbourhood stories here and here.