They Just Show Up

Nobody asked them to come.

That's the part I keep coming back to.

We're in the middle of it right now. An 18-year move. Villa Solsiden needs to be emptied, cleaned, fixed and made beautiful for whoever comes next. It's a lot and Jan-Erik and I knew that going in. What we didn't calculate was the people.

Friends are showing up with tools and work clothes. Our daughter's in-laws are showing up. People with their own weekends, their own lives, their own lists, and they're here anyway. Painting. Packing. Hauling. Standing in the garden asking "what do you need next?" and then going and doing it.

No invoice. No favour owed. Just: we see you need help, so here we are.

Then there are the people buying Flåttfrid's and recommending our tick and mosquito repellent to friends and family. They don't have to. It's a small product from a small business, not something with a big marketing machine behind it. But they buy it, use it, and then they tell someone else about it, and then they tell someone else. That's not marketing. That's people choosing to support a small family business because they want it to survive.

My father just got home from hospital. The house and the garden, the daily stuff that keeps a home running, is harder for him right now. His body isn't keeping up the way it used to.

My cousins are there. Not because he asked, but because they looked at the situation and understood what was needed. Someone comes by for the garden. Someone checks in. The things that need doing are quietly getting done.

We talk about community like it's something you build. A project, a strategy.

But the community I'm watching right now doesn't look like any of that. It looks like a person in work boots at 9am on a Saturday. It looks like a text message that says "I'll be there at 10, what should I bring?" It looks like a friend who tells people about your small business. It's specific. It's quiet.

If you have people like this in your life, and maybe you do, maybe they're already there, stop and look. They just show up.

I notice and I'm grateful. Every single time.