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Summer Speedos | Field Notes: Empty Chair · Neighbourly: Real Stories of Care and Community

• 0:05
  Welcome to Summer Speedos from Neighborly, our short in between season
• 0:09
  series. While Shannon takes a break from her regular interviews. I'm
• 0:13
  Johan, the producer of the show. Some episodes are field notes recorded
• 0:17
  outside in ordinary places where care actually happens. Others
• 0:20
  are story field notes, more cinematic reflections that start with a story
• 0:24
  from history or real life. Either way, we're paying attention to the small,
• 0:28
  ordinary ways care, faith, courage and community show up around us.
• 0:32
  So grab a cold drink or head out on that bike ride, walk or hike.
• 0:36
  Enjoy this year's edition of Summer Speedos from Neighbourly.
• 0:43
  Hey everyone. Welcome to the Neighbourly Podcast, a podcast about ordinary
• 0:47
  people showing extraordinary care. I'm Johan, the producer
• 0:51
  of the show. This summer, while Shannon takes
• 0:55
  a break from our regular interviews, we're doing a few shorter episodes called
• 0:58
  Field Notes on Ordinary Care. I'll be recording some of these while
• 1:02
  taking walks through my neighborhood. Maybe some parks,
• 1:05
  trails and places where life is actually happening.
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  Because we're going to talk about loving our neighbors, it's probably
• 1:13
  going to help to occasionally leave the studio and stand near
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  some actual neighbors. Also, my studio is a
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  windowless basement office, so this is partly a creative
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  choice and partly a public health intervention. I need
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  a little sunlight so I don't look quite so pasty, like printer
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  paper with headphones. Here I am sitting
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  on a park bench. Birds are tweeting after a
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  nice rainfall we had earlier this morning. Trees are green and
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  it's pretty quiet. Anyway, on my way here on my
• 1:47
  walk, I came upon a house that had an empty chair
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  outside and I don't know why it stopped me, but I couldn't decide whether it
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  means absolutely nothing or maybe a little too much.
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  It was just a chair, faded, a little tired,
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  the kind of outdoor chair that looks like it has survived many summers
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  and at least one family member saying we should really throw
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  that out. It might mean nothing. Someone went inside,
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  someone is at work, someone forgot it there and has
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  emotionally moved on. But empty chairs have a way of
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  asking questions. Who used to sit there? Who used
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  to show up? What kind of conversations might one have
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  had sitting at the chair across from someone else who
• 2:32
  used to be part of the rhythm and is now not around so much?
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  Every community has empty chairs, not always
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  literal ones. There's the one person who used to stay after
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  church and now leaves quickly. The neighbor who used to wave and
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  now keeps their head down. The friend who used to text
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  back right away and now replies three days later,
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  sorry, things have been a lot. There's the
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  volunteer who quietly stepped back the family you've not seen
• 3:03
  in a while. The person who did not announce a crisis. They just
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  slowly disappeared from the pattern. That kind of
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  absence is easy to miss because it doesn't make
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  noise. A crisis announces itself.
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  Absence just leaves a little space where someone used to be.
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  And if we're busy enough, we digest without asking why.
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  That's not because we're terrible. It's because life keeps moving.
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  But neighbourly care pays attention to absence. It
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  asks who is not here. Not in a suspicious
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  way, not in a clipboard way, and please don't
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  become the attendance police of human suffering, but in a
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  loving way. The way a shepherd notices one sheep missing.
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  That image from Jesus has become so familiar that we can
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  forget how tender it is. The the one matters.
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  The missing one matters. The person who is not
• 4:00
  visible still belongs. People should not have to
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  disappear dramatically before someone checks in.
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  And the check in doesn't need to be dramatic either.
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  Sometimes it's as simple as. Hey, I noticed I've not seen you
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  in a while. No pressure. I just wanted to check in.
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  Or you. You came to mind today. I'm
• 4:23
  grateful for you. Or maybe if life has
• 4:27
  been heavy lately, you don't have to explain it at all. I just wanted you
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  to know that you are not forgotten. You see, that kind of message
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  doesn't fix everything, but it does something important.
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  It tells the person their absence was noticed and their
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  presence matters. So this week, maybe
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  look for the empty chairs. Who used to be part of your
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  rhythm, who has gone quiet, who might need
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  a gentle check in before the gaps get wider. You
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  don't need to make it dramatic. Just notice.
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  Then reach out with care. That is the field
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  note. Keep noticing.
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  It.