the swat team camped outside our house yesterday along with all that went with them; ems, fire, bomb squad, and multiple police cars.  they rolled in around 8, and finally rolled out around 5.  it didn’t end well for the person who’d barricaded themselves with a rifle in their apartment.

the first to arrive were the fire trucks.  when they pulled up in front of my house my first thought was concern for my next door neighbor.  thoughts of how long it’d been since we’d had a conversation over the fence.  why hadn’t i shared my latest homemade jam or invited him over for some iced tea?  partly it’s because i haven’t made jam in a while, the freezer is still holding last years crop.  partly it’s the demands of life in the current season we are in.  mostly because i’m not spending the time in the yard i used to in the spring/summers.  this makes me sad.

once we realized the fire trucks weren’t for a neighbor who was ill, as police car after police car rolled in, and men got out and put on helmets and vests and grabbed their big guns.  when the swat truck rolled by and then all the others.  we knew it was going to be an interesting morning.  i decided to wait at home till it all cleared up, expecting it’d be a couple of hours or so.  the last time the person ran around thru the neighborhood-i don’t recall how that turned out but do remember it didn’t take too long.  this time was different, it took all day.  after the first round of tear gas shots, a couple cops pulled up with pizza, water, and snacks.  we realized it might be a while.

the point of all this isn’t so much about the event, but about the thinking after.

i love living here.

i love knowing the grocery checkers by name.  knowing my neighbors by name.  i love the old houses and quirky landscapes.  walking to the library or downtown-tho we don’t do that near enough these days.

this sort of thing could happen in any neighborhood really.  this doesn’t make me feel unsafe, but it does remind me of what matters and emboldens me to be a bit more diligent to make the most of the opportunities given to connect with the people around me.  the police tried hard for a different outcome, for hours and hours we were inconvenienced to save a mans life.  i’m sad that it didn’t end well.

as we move along back to ‘regularly scheduled programming’ may we continue to grow in flexing and rolling with what each day holds in spite of the plans and agendas we seek to honor.