As I pen these thoughts, it’s late May 2020, and in some ways, we’ve been in this pandemic long enough to have made necessary adjustments to a new way of living. Yet, even with these movements and rhythms, so much uncertainty remains.

So I ask you, do you still love where you live?

Just like we can’t judge a book by its cover, we can’t judge our community by its structure. It’s the people in your town who are being changed and are adapting and persevering inside the walls of their homes. People are learning new things, experimenting. Neighbors are pushing through isolation and depression. These are your fellow citizens who will be here when this pandemic is over and a new community emerges. Our cities and towns will be as strong as we are becoming behind our home walls. Will you be here to see it happen?

If it’s true that so much has changed in your own personal life, couldn't you and I assume that this is true for others in our communities?

• A bakery with 50 locations in the Bay Area is closed for good.

• Twitter, a local business (!), has issued a notice to all employees they can forever work from home.

• You are watching blockbuster movies, not at a movie theater, but from your sofa with a bag of popcorn that came from Amazon Fresh this week.

• I’m hearing far more birds than horns. Is it that the birds got louder or the hurried commuter hasn’t gotten in his car for weeks?

• I know we’re all home, yet it feels like Christmas in the city. Only locals left.

• If storefronts are empty, are apartments emptying too?

• In regards to the urban landscape, people have fled the city that lured them towards collaboration, start-ups, and eccentricity. Will they return?

“If cities become less desirable in the next few years, they will also become cheaper to live in. In time, more affordable rents could attract more interesting people, ideas, and companies.” - Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

Why do we still live in San Francisco? is an entirely other post!

I chatted with my friend, Elizabeth, a New Yorker, who is more committed than ever about loving where she lives. You can listen to our conversation here.

As we will all emerge differently from this pandemic, let it be said of us that we didn’t let fear drive us out or apathy keep us in.

We loved well and used this pandemic to set aside any differences, say hello and learn the names of those who live right around us.

Our neighbors knew us because we didn’t wait for the welcome, but became the welcome on our block.

We helped bring new life and refreshment into a fearful and hurting street that has our physical address too.

We didn’t move here or are choosing to stay here for

the businesses,

the events,

the shows,

the climate,

the beauty,

the sports teams,

the school system,

the price of housing,

the opportunities.

We moved here to love the people of San Francisco. That has certainly included collaboration, friendship, celebrations, opportunities, memory making moments.

That mission and calling is still present.

I can say I still love where I live because I still get to love the people God has called us to love. If you’ve got just one person to love where you live, that’s one reason to stay.

Photos taken in this month of May. Top photos are around my block. Bottom photos of where I’m tempted to move to when my heart wants to give up and leave.