Which Path Are You On?

After an evening of observing the garden and lot from the upstairs porch on a clear night and a full moon, we decided to just go after it.  The lot has been used as a path, or "cut," from E 117th to E 118th since before we moved here.  When we moved in, there were two fences at the back of the lot- a tall, wooden one at the backyard of the house on E 118th, and a mid-height chain-link one with green ribbon on the back of the abandoned lot.  The chain-link one was falling down a bit, when we got here, but that didn't stop anyone from using the bent, spiky wire as a step to help climb over the wooden fence.  It became clear early on that the way that this fence was being used, it wasn't going to last long. When we moved in, I think there was an initial hesitation to jump over the fence while we were present.  There had been a standard set before that "cutting" was not really acceptable, despite that everyone was doing it.  The fact that Daniel & I not only didn't seem to mind the cutting, we also endorsed it in some way by greeting everyone as they went back and forth.  Frankly, it makes a lot of sense that there is a path in between the lot and this backyard, because there is a family that lives half on E 117th with the other half (or at least another portion of it) lives in that house on E 118th with its backyard to the abandoned lot.  That being said, while kids were hopping over it one day, I said "we should just put a gate in, don't you think?  It's not gonna last."  The one guy agreed, and got scared for a moment at the thought of the fence collapsing underneath him.

The view of the back of the lot from the back of our house 

(before we bought the house in March 2012).  Both layers of the fence were still up.

A close-up view of the fence as it slowly started to come down. 

You can see on the right where the metal fence was used as a step to hop the wooden fence.

Fast forward to a year later, and a large - about 4' wide - section of the wooden fence is gone, and the wire fence collapsed so much that Daniel cut it out and removed the hazardous metal- leaving a wide open gap.  Where Mamas & babies had to climb over scraggly pile of broken fence, now they push their strollers through with a sister friend by their side.  Where young boys hung off the edge, legs dangling above the rusty stuff- now they move smoothly through on bikes playing around the street.  Opening up that fence changed the reality of the space immensely, and highlighting the well-used path with wood mulch yesterday, changed it again.

In the background is the view of the fence when the wooden section has come down, 

and the metal fence is mostly to the ground.  This photo was taken in April, not long before the rest of the dangly metal fence was cut out.

That was what we did.  We saw it was time to just let this path be what it was- not let it be a wishy-washy path, but a real path, that was encouraged with wood chips.  The soil had become so worn along the path, because of all the foot traffic, and the wood chips will help to create soil as it breaks down, and to change the wear of the lot.  The wood chip mulch also made it very clear to anyone who was looking that "this is a path."

Interestingly, today, the neighbor with his backyard to the lot (and the broken wooden fence, who uses the path regularly throughout the day), put his big trash & recycling bins in front of the gap as to block the entrance.  In talking with him tonight about his thoughts, he said he doesn't really want it to be a path for strangers- just people who live in the house - so he thought the bins would discourage strangers from coming through.  The only downside being that now anyone who passes through has to push aside two giant (and a bit stinky) garbage & recycling bins.  Daniel & our neighbor talked about the situation and brainstormed some possibilities - essentially coming up with that a gate is what is the best to go after.  Maybe the gate even has a key that only their family has a key to.  Whatever the situation ends up being, it seems it may be very helpful- if not only possible- for a gate to manifest itself if Daniel stays involved.  So he will most likely.

The thing that struck me the most was how interesting the wood chips changed the approach of the neighbor.  Despite that the cut has been used as a path daily, throughout the day, for months- and over a year now, when we took the step to acknowledge it as a path publicly (by putting wood chips down), the neighbor was able to express more of what he had initially felt when his wooden fence came down in the first place: he wanted the gap closed up.  And yet, despite that our neighbor had expressed that to us before, no action was taken to block the gate, until we helped make it clear that this cut is a real path; therefore, implying that if one doesn't want there to be a path, then they have to take action to make it go away.  And since our neighbor didn't really want a path in the first place, the wood chips helped him to see the path for what it is- and to take action to stop the path from existing (or at least, to alter the path with a gate).

In short, by keeping on our Path (spiritual/destiny/visionary path, if you will), we acted as a catalyst for our neighbor to stay on his Path which included voicing his ideas of how to repair his fence (including going to Habitat for Humanity, where he used to work, to find a cheap gate to install).  I take this to be an important reminder for all the relationships we share with others in this life.  Listen to your heart, stick to your Path, and others will have a better ability to follow their true path, too.  That doesn't mean that you won't run into a garbage can every now and again.

Goodnight to the Big Moon,  

Diana