About Those Villages

Speaking of our village, it hit met last week that while I often feel like our own personal village is pretty small and self-contained we’re incredibly lucky to be part of other villages. (And yep, Julie, you are ABSOLUTELY counted as part of our village, even being over 180 mile away.)

Last Wednesday evening the friend of one of Lyss’s friends texted me. She wanted to know if her daughter could ride the bus home with Lyss on Thursday and someone (a parent, a brother) would pick her up after 4:30. There wouldn’t be anyone home that afternoon and even though Sophie is fourteen, it’s been freaking cold around here and her mom didn’t want her to walk the half mile from the school to their home and come home to an empty house.

Obviously, I said of course Sophie could come over. She could stay as long as needed.

It warmed my heart to help. I felt so lucky that Tom is home every day when our girls get off the bus and I wanted to share some of that luckiness with Sophie and her parents. And of course, if the situation were reversed, I know that they’d welcome both A and O into their home in a heartbeat. Heck, they’d even be so kind as to put their two Basset hounds in the backyard to preserve Olivia’s sensibilities. (I know this because they’ve done it on every occasion that we’ve gone into their house. They understand that Liv can’t help being terrified of their dogs and they don’t take it personally.)

The day before Sophie’s mom texted about Sophie coming to our house for a couple of hours, the mom of one of Lyss’s other good friends called to ask what she called a ‘huge favor.’

This mom and her older daughter are going on vacation. Her younger daughter, Lyss’s friend Tessa, doesn’t want to go with them because it would mean missing several days of school and she’s a lot like Lyss, she likes school and doesn’t want to fall behind. Well, obviously, a fourteen year old can’t stay at home alone for over a week.

Tessa’s mom wanted to know if Tessa could stay with us this coming Friday and Saturday nights. She went on to explain that because Tessa is in the high school pep band, I’ll need to take her (and Alyssa, because…duh) to the basketball game on Friday. She said she hated to ask, that she’d found other arrangements for Tessa through the week and that Tessa would be going to Sophie’s house on Sunday but she wondered if it wouldn’t be too much trouble for us to take Tessa in for a couple of nights.

Of course I told her this was no problem at all. I was actually flattered that she’d asked. I feel honored to be a part of Tessa’s and her mom’s village. I feel like making lovely friends with entire families is part of the charm of being from a very small town. There are several families in this area with girls in my girls’ classes that we could call in an emergency and they’d step up to the plate for us. Just like they seem know we’ll do for them.

Now that January is finally making its cold, snowy exit from 2017, I’m suddenly feeling a little lighter, a little less anxious, a little more hopeful for the future…a little.