{"id":2534,"date":"2025-01-24T19:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T19:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2025-01-24T19:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T19:37:15","slug":"my-wise-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/24\/my-wise-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"My Wise Neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

By The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Editor,<\/p>\n

It usually happens when you don\u2019t even expect it. And you may not realize the significance of it until sometime later. That\u2019s what happened to me when my neighbor Ms. Lilly Fowler told me what to do when you\u2019re feeling low. But let me start at the beginning.<\/p>\n

After college I studied at the Lyons Art Institute of Higher Learning in Boston to receive a master\u2019s degree in art history. I was living alone in a second-floor apartment on Beacon Street. It was a brownstone building right on the trolly line which took me to my classes. I hadn\u2019t met my husband yet who was studying there to receive a master\u2019s degree in music.<\/p>\n

My parents had given me a Macintosh amplifier, two Advent speaker consoles and a turntable as a graduation gift. They knew that I loved all kinds of music, especially classical, so it was a perfect gift. I put the speaker cabinets on my hardwood floor in my living room where I studied and began enjoying music on vinyl. I studied at all hours because I loved my curriculum and sometimes Mozart or Bach kept me company.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello dear. This is Lilly Fowler, your downstairs neighbor. I\u2019m calling to ask you to lower your music. It\u2019s very loud down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

My name was on the brass doorbell downstairs, and Ms. Fowler looked up my phone number in her copy of the phone book. Land lines and phone books are today\u2019s things of the past.<\/p>\n

I apologized and quickly lowered my music. I was always sensitive to other people and was a little surprised that I didn\u2019t realize my music could be heard by other people in the brownstone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s her name.\u201d We sometimes would pass each other going in or out of the building. In fact one day I saw her going through my mail which was left on the side table in the common hallway. \u201cI\u2019m looking for my electric bill which is late this month\u201d she said. I believed her. Days passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello dear. Please come down to my apartment. I want you to hear what your music sounds like down here. I think the hardwood floor acts like an amplifier. It\u2019s terribly loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

I went down to her apartment. My music was loud. I invited her up to my apartment to hear how normal it was. She agreed. When she heard the music in my apartment she said \u201cI see.\u201d A deep and lasting friendship was forged.<\/p>\n

Lilly had had her own radio program for over twenty years. She was a published author and a regular public speaker at women\u2019s and public service events. As I got to know and love her, I realized that she was a philosopher. A very wise woman.<\/p>\n

One day as we were chatting over a light dinner which she had prepared in her apartment, it happened. She gave me a piece of advice which I use to this day. She said when a person is feeling low what they need to do is to perform an act of kindness for another person.<\/p>\n

The brilliance of that advice has been demonstrated to me over the years. When a person is feeling low and they do a kind deed for another it demonstrates that they have something to give. It demonstrates that they have value and can bring goodness into another\u2019s life. It awakens their self-esteem. And if the person receiving kindness shows appreciation it makes the giving person feel good.<\/p>\n

Recently I have had several people from my congregation say that they feel a bit lost since our Church burned down and we are holding service in the Unity Grange Hall. I have told each of them to do a good deed for another person and they will feel better. Mary Holloway started giving free piano lessons to children in our Church. Theresa Browne started a reading club for retired adults in our community.<\/p>\n

I will always thank Lilly Fowler for her wisdom and acute listening.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood
\n<\/strong>Senior Pastor
\nExecutive Director
\nPresident
\nChairman
\nChoir Master (part-time)
\nThe First Church of God\u2019s Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 Bill Donnelly, 2024. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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