The great thing about sitting on a front porch is the people you get to see. You’re there to notice when a car stops in front of your house.

I was sitting on the porch trying to write a blog. I didn’t really have anything to say but I was avoiding the bigger manuscript thing I’ve begun. That can be intimidating and my blog is friendly but even that wasn’t going well.

Anyway, there’s a house for sale on our block so I figured the people in the car were looking for house numbers. I watched through the potted plant that has grown tall so no one can see me. At least that’s how it feels. But when I noticed they were looking at more than the address, I moved so I could be seen and someone waved from the car.

Long lost relatives, I wondered? They sometimes do this, drive up, stop and look at the house and then drive on. They tell me this. ‘Well ring the doorbell next time!’ I say. It’s an old house that belonged to my parents. I grew up in this house. It’s filled with memories and its memories fill people. Like me. That’s why I wrote a book. To keep those memories with us. And that’s why the long lost relatives stop and look—the memories. They really should ring the doorbell.

So this is what’s good about sitting on the front porch. You get to say hi to the people who stop but might have thought they’d be bothering you if they rang the doorbell so drive on. Who knows? Maybe they would be. Maybe you wouldn’t answer the door. And maybe you would miss one of the most precious opportunities in life like seeing old friends from high school, like I did today.

I waved back and then there was a lot of hugging. One, a musician, I saw three years ago in Paris. Another, an artist, I saw years before that when she was in town for an exhibit, and still another, a world traveler, I haven’t seen in what? Forty years? Fifty? I had a crush on him back then. He never knew that. Actually, I had a crush on both of them. Doug and Joe. And if I’m totally honest, I had a crush on Dawn’s husband Keith too. At a certain point in life you can admit these things, especially when your current crush is on your husband and you’re very happily married. (I love you sweetheart. And don’t worry, you’ll get to see them too because I invited them back for breakfast in the morning.)

Anyway, I happened to have a couple extra copies of the book with all the memories so I gave them each one. Now the memories and a part of me can travel with them.

When they were gone, I realized they had left me with a heart full of love. And that’s what’s so great about sitting on the front porch!

#ConversationswithDad