Breakfast is ready. We all slept in. But here I am. Medicating. If I don’t… I won’t eat. I feel like a gross terrible junkie because I take a cannabis pill and then go out to the garage to smoke. The pill takes forever and if I wait for it to kick in… I can’t eat until then. I haven’t vomited from stomach pain in a long time because I have been respecting the boundaries of the effectiveness of this medication. The smoking can be felt in less than fifteen minutes. As opposed to over an hour. (Besides the cannabis pills are absorbed better if you eat at the same time… which I can’t.)

I feel good. Isn’t that a weird thing to say after the previous paragraph? Some days I wake up and I look at the knives I have to juggle that day and I think, “Meh. I got it.” Some days I cry. I’m never sure which is which or why.

I think a lot of my anxiety about my involvement with neighbors revolves around this idea, “If it all blows up we may be stuck living near one another for years….”

We spend more time with our neighbors than anyone I know. We didn’t know these people before we moved here. I’ve forced relationships. Forced sounds like the wrong word. I’ve nurtured relationships. I have created them out of whole cloth. I have incubated and been persistent and these days people seem to really like me.

That’s weird, yo.

I’m looking forward to talking to the temple. I practically vibrate with excitement thinking about this. This is my chance.

If I want to be a big fish in a small pond. If I want to be someone who actively builds bridges between different kinds of people. If I want to be able to make peoples lives better this is the chance that has been thrust upon me this week. I’ve had other chances–some of them I’ve taken and some I’ve passed up, often with regret. I know there will be more in the future.

Meddle. That’s what I do. I meddle. I’m a teacher. I tell people how to do things better. I study people and relationships and patterns and I hope I can help people appreciate one another more.

This is a chance. I have the physical petition mostly written, I think. I have a few more things I’m going to tweak. I want to write up a one page hand out with “let’s have a neighborhood email list so we can arrange a block party and summer kid activities” on it.

It’s time to just go. But I’m not starting until after this half marathon. It’s freakin tomorrow. I need to focus.

I want to be someone who matters to people. I don’t want to be president. I don’t want to be the boss. But I want people to think that I often have interesting things to say and I’m worth listening to.

If you want that you have to just go do it. To that effect I’ve introduced myself to three new neighbors in the past two days.

Just go.