[The Boy] Next Door.

[Image via Pinterest]

Next door always fits one description, our expectation.
We always want what we want next door no matter what's happening indoors.
Sometimes I think it's all about appearances as our Neighborhood is more important than the state of our latrines.

In my Neighborhood is a house that looks like the Eiffel as long as I live next door I can famz* and really it's okay, that's okay.
I once caught myself telling a girl "I live next to that house, yes that house that looks like the Eiffel." I also caught myself grinning from ear to ear.

What is wrong with us that we cant stand alone and exude uniqueness?
Why do we have to always lean?
I know it's better as houses than a house but community is for an entirely different purpose.

What's wrong with being a lighthouse and saying "come, come I am for safety too"
Or being the tree instead of the bird on the tree and choosing to grow till every branch is a refuge.

For whatever is going to be situated next door is a definition, a criteria if not met then is discarded as weird. And we do this with people too. in case you haven't figured it out, we are the houses.

I wanna be the light house. I wanna be unique not just to show off but to serve the ones who are asking God big unique questions, bent on not entering in until they have answers. I wanna be that answer.

And I believe individually we are too.

I wanna be that tree thriving on the healthy symbiosis experience discarding the parasitic nightmare, growing branches through the strong wind blowing across the forest. I won't be knocked down.

I believe you won't too.

For trees are to bear fruits some peaches, some mangoes, others apples. The vineyard keeper loves them all but WE have preferences.

Next door is a phrase we came up with in the twentieth century cause every generation has its expectations but not too fast every generation has its needs too, and these aren't usually the same.

I stand for the need. Cause expectations are desires and fantasies sometimes necessary but most times plastic.

I stand for the need cause when the chips are down, the need is the core

You should too.

So a note to my Neighbor and your neighbors too: whatever you want built next to your house isn't necessarily what The estate owner wants to build next to your house. You could do yourself a favor and take care of the interiors so you wouldn't be wanting words when the owner arrives.

So to my Neighbor and to yours I say again: whatever you built next to your house isn't necessarily what God wants built next to yours (cause he's more particular about the needful things).

So look up and stand alone, be strong for you and for the guests coming.
We want many things next door, like the girl with the perfect hair and body or the boy ready to 'play'.
I'm leaving those definitions, criteria and labels because I'm seeing them as restrictions.
So I beg to differ, I'm not the guy next door.

I think you should too.

“Do you think I'm wonderful? she asked him one day as they leaned against the trunk of a petrified maple. No, he said. Why? Because so many girls are wonderful. I imagine hundreds of men have called their loves wonderful today, and it's only noon. You couldn't be something that hundreds of others are.” 

― Jonathan Safran Foer, from the book Everything Is Illuminated

“You are the only you God made... God made you and broke the mold.” 

― Max Lucado, from the book Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot

P.S- a little bit about the writing. If you told me I would use the word latrine in any of my writings a day before I wrote this, I would say 'NEVER, no way". Don't like the word much, I prefer 'toilet' (which means the same in this context) but Latrine works well for this piece.

*'Famz' is a word used in my community for trying to take on the reputation of another. It's not in the English dictionary, at least not yet. :)