31 days: neighborhoods vs. subdivisions

We used to live in a subdivision, but now we live in a neighborhood.
I am sure you are wondering...what is the difference?
For starters, let us look at the names. A neighborhood has at its root the word "neighbor". A subdivision? Sub divided.
We were a collection of houses that were divided. We talk to those people, but not those people. We socialize with them, but not with them. Those kids talk to us, those kids do not.
We drove cars into garages and sat on decks and never interacted with each other except in superficial ways.
It was maddening.
On our first scouting trip to the new city, my husband's boss and his wife drove us through the subdivisions near their end of town.
"How are your neighbors?"I asked.
"Well, we don't talk to them, so we don't really know them."
Later that night, I told my husband , "Honey, i cannot live like that again."
He understood.
We now live in a neighborhood, where people are neighborly. Everyone is invited, everyone is welcome, everyone talks to each other.
The way it should be.
Let's face it, we have too many things in this modern age that divide us. Politics. Denomination. Cell phones. Texting. Computers. Even the new designs of our homes can separate us from our neighbors, and even from the people living under our roof.
It is time to be intentional with our relationships now more than ever.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer felt it before the war that would make him a martyr.
"A new kind of monasticism," he called it.
A restoration.
We need to claim victory over subdivision and love our neighbors in real and tangible ways.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Won't you be my neighbor?
Update:

Family life today on Moody radio had  a wonderful program on this topic this morning! You can visit the website and look for more  info on neighborhood cafes and this exciting ministry from Amy Lively!