All the Pretty Little Houses

I live in a community made up of single family homes, condominiums, and town homes.  I live in one of the town homes.  There were two different builders of the town home part of the community.  One of the builders created homes that are all different; each house in the row has a different colored siding.  Some have wide, covered porches.  Others have small stoops.  Each one is unique.  The other builder created homes that are very much alike one another.  Each section of homes is swathed in the same color paint.  Some rows are yellow, some gray, some white, some blue.  These homes all have small front porches.  Each home in the row is the exact same design.

When my husband and I were looking to buy, we walked through several of the houses and saw a few of each design.  We ended up buying a home that was crafted by the second builder, as the floor plans offered much larger rooms.

Looking at the houses in my neighborhood, I see some homes that are well taken care of and others that have fallen into disrepair.  There are homes that sit vacant, needing some family to fill the rooms with love again.

I was thinking, tonight, about the houses.  I thought about my own front yard, my flowerbed full of beautiful blooms of purple and pink.  I thought about how I decorate my yard so lovingly, and how it pains me that some in the neighborhood just don't seem to care that their gutter fell down 3 winters ago or haven't figured out that old trashcans aren't lawn decor.

Then I thought about our bodies, and how some people work so hard to make sure that they care very well for the body they've been given.  They monitor their intake of calories, carbs, or whole food groups.  They regularly work up a sweat.  Many of us don't think too much about those things until our pants don't fit quite like they used to or swimsuit season is coming around.

 I guess what it comes down to is that the things we love are the things we put work into.