Do we get silly as we age or do we get to a point where we are no longer invested in what people think.

I have this very lovely neighbor that I have adopted.  Not that she needs another daughter, hers is incredibly capable and doting but I like to visit her and keep an eye out.  Maybe it is because I don't live near my own mother but I suspect that I have become a person who wants to be the world I want to live in.  What does that mean?  It means that I want my neighbors to watch out for me like I do them.  That doesn't mean that I judge the way they live, just watch out for their pets, packages on their porch, cross the street and visit with them and generally be a friendly person.  We live in WA, and one neighbor gave us enough pot to last the year (lol).

When we moved into the house, one neighbor commented how nice it was to be able to have a conversation with us.  I gather the last owners weren't as social.  In the summer time, I talk to others on the street, just to be able to know who they are and so they know me.  I was trading plants back and forth with the house on the corner and another neighbor trimmed my trees for me.

I live that way outside of my street as well.  I pick up trash, return shopping carts to the store or the cart corrals (that has a double benefit of being nice and getting in steps).  I will help unload carts of strangers and return those carts as well.  That adopted neighbor?  I trade home made meals with her.  She doesn't like to return my food containers empty so sometimes I get candy but I understand (I have a couple of them full of chocolate right now), she wants to reciprocate.  Her sausage tortellini goulash was awesome! 

The world is rather unsettling right now, we don't have to make it worse and believe it or not; small things can make a huge difference.  When we get frustrated or scared, how would we have liked to be treated differently?  I guess I am a bit like Little Mary Sunshine but if it lights up a bit of shadow, I think I am making a difference.