In recent columns I have posed the question: What does our community look like now, and what do we want it to look like in 10 years?
On a recent car trip, I listened to a podcast where they were discussing the notion of being radically neighbourly, and it struck a chord with me.
You see in October last year, on my 38th birthday, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
And on the 29th March this year, I finished treatment.
So for the last few months I’ve had operations, chemo treatment, followed by radiation treatment, dotted with visits to more doctors and nurses than I can remember, a flight in the RFDS plane from Goondiwindi to Toowoomba, and generally some fairly unpleasant days and nights.
And through all of this, the thing that overwhelmed me the most was the generosity and support from my community.
They have been, most definitely, the epitome of being radically neighbourly!
So what does this even mean?
Well, I can tell you what it has meant for me in the last few months in my rural community of Goondiwindi.
It’s meant a bag of groceries dropped off at the door, a free coffee at my regular coffee hangout when I was feeling well enough to go to town, a bag of books for me to read while I was house-bound or a bunch of flowers to brighten our home.
It was loads of washing after operations, and litres of creams to help through the effects of chemo and radiation.
We are still enjoying frozen home-cooked meals that people delivered, so much so that I think Tony will be slightly disappointed when I am cooking again!!
It has struck me since, that often when we say radical neighbourliness come to the front is in times of crisis – fires, floods, illness, etc.
But for me now, I’m interested in how we do this outside of a catastrophe.
So it will be a random text to say hello when I think of you, the sharing of a book I think you might like, and an old fashioned letter to touch base, and anything else I think of to connect and remain radically neighbourly on a regular basis.
I’ll save you from my cooking though…
– Julia Telford, Engage and Create Consulting, Goondiwindi
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