Sometimes it’s the vibes, the longer you’re in your house. Your neighborhood. Your community.
People spending a few months of the year in one place, and a few months someplace else — like folks with second homes, for example — may be missing out on vibes.
I was thinking about that, about vibes, feeling them on an unusually warm and balmy, late afternoon, as I was kicking back, out back at our place, about an hour before sunset.
The vibes were about the same as they were decades ago, when we first moved to the area.
Waving to some long-time neighbors, across the way, hearing them gardening, and, later, getting dinner ready… hearing the sound of dinner plates being arranged on a table, I realized, was much the same.
Nature’s vibes were about the same, too. The branches on trees were hardly moving, that balmy afternoon.
Even large birds that, this time of year, hunt for small fish in the lagoons, were kicking back for the moment, on the highest branches of tall, old trees. They were looking calm and graceful, however… I could see their long necks and heads pivoting. There must have been fish in the water.
Two big, old pine trees, that, years ago, had branches that formed a heart, still had what’s become a hint of a heart. The branches have grown apart, some, over the years.
The hummingbirds were hovering over late summer blossoms, the crows were up in trees, and at the top of chimneys on neighbors’ homes. The Canada Geese were whooping it up, maybe doing their pre-flight checks, before heading off for other parts, at this time of year.
Just a few doors down from our long-time neighbors, new neighbors were settling in the homes they’d bought, this past summer, maybe feeling what my family and I were feeling when we were settling in our place. That excitement getting to know your home, your new neighbors, your new neighborhood, your new community.
They’re about our age — our new neighbors — when we first moved here.
Maybe they’re already feeling the vibes.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.