Judgement

Kim lives in our subdivision.  I don’t know her last name, and I don’t know what is wrong with her.  She is mentally and somewhat physically handicapped.  I can’t understand her speech, and she hugs me all the time.   Every time I am outside, she hugs me.  I don’t even know which house in our neighborhood she lives in.

 I’ve always felt slightly uncomfortable with her affections, and so does my husband.  She follows him around when he mows the lawn- he is so patient with her.  I’ve always found it mildly irritating that I can’t even go out in my own yard without being trapped by her.  Sometimes I just want to be alone, and not have to talk to anyone- just me and my gardens.  I want to be able to stand back and admire months of planning, weeding and nurturing.  I’ve always felt bad about how I feel.  I am kind to Kim and I talk to her, even when I don’t want to. 

We had new neighbors move in about 2 months ago.  They don’t like Kim.  I can tell because everytime she goes near them, they ignore her and walk into their house.  I know how they feel, but I hate how they treat her.  I watch them through my bedroom window, and I wish I could throw something at them.  She has feelings, and she knows they don’t like her.  We call him the hippie guy- because that is exactly what he looks like.  He parks his car in front of our house, and it drives us nutty.

I saw Kim today and she was going house to house pulling everyone’s green bins into their yards after the garbage guys had finished emptying them.  She pulled ours in- all the way to the top of our driveway.  That’s a big help to a busy new Mom who barely has time to eat lunch.  I smiled and thought about how lucky I am that Kim likes us enough to do us a favour like that. Then I laughed because she pulled everyone’s in but Hippie guy.  Guess he should be nicer and maybe people would be nicer to him.

So I go back to my original question… what is wrong with Kim? I know the answer now… absolutely nothing.