Love Thy Neighbour

We live in an end-of-terrace Victorian house in London. To us, it's small. There is very little storage space. We have no basement or garage. The rooms are like boxes and the gardens are like postage stamps. I get frustrated, very frustrated, when I can't put things away because there is no place to put them. It's even worse when I need to find something, such as an important document, because the things that are not piled up on the floor are stuffed into every crevice of our wardrobes with no rhyme nor reason. I long for a big house with walk-in closets, a two-car garage and plenty of land for the kids to run around. In contrast, however, our next-door neighbours think their house, which is smaller than ours, is just right, maybe a little too big, in fact. They've lived there all their married life. They raised three boys in that house. They've never owned a car. Their home is filled now with memories but not clutter, and is visited daily by their grandchildren and dogs who keep the house alive. Their gardens are spectacular. Here are two people who are content with what they have and know what is important in life. They don't need a lot of stuff. They have everything they want - family close by, public transportation to take them to parks and museums. They get up in the morning and discuss what to do in the garden that day. They always have a smile and something cheerful to say to the people they meet, and are wonderful neighbours. We could all learn something about living from them.