I have lived in the same house for over forty years. It is not a big house or lot, but I have enjoyed it very much. It is pretty close to my neighbor’s house, but eventually her yard became very overgrown, creating a lovely green zone. I enjoyed the privacy this natural barrier gave both of us.

Then one day I heard chain saws and found the greenery had all disappeared. I met the new owner of the now quite visible house. He said he planned to fix it up, rent it, then sell it. Shortly, he poured a cement slab in the formerly green yard and the house was rented to a single parent with a basketball-playing ten-year-old.

I learned that this little family had moved from a cramped city apartment where he had not been able to practice basketball outside. I was happy that the boy now had a place to play, but I was very dismayed that my privacy and quiet had been replaced with barren cement, glaring lights at night, and the thunk, thunk, thunk of constantly bouncing balls. I decided to have new double-pane windows and doors installed, but this did not eliminate the annoying sounds.

I knew I wasn’t going to move, so I sat myself down, thought about the situation and prayed for a solution. While I was asking God for some direction I heard the familiar sound of the basketball bouncing on the court. I looked up to see the young boy shooting hoops with a face filled with joy. Right then, instead of seeing a noisy neighbor, I saw one of God’s children expressing God’s goodness. I knew he was in his right place, and so was I.

I had an attitude change. The noise stopped bothering me. In fact, now if I don’t hear it, I miss it and when it comes again a smile comes across my face and I know we are all embraced in God’s love. In Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, page 205, it says, “When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded; whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders man’s normal drift towards the one Mind, one God, and leads human thought into opposite channels where selfishness reigns. When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His,–no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.”

D.C.