Summer Speedos | Field Notes: Empty Chair
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Description
Summer Speedos is Neighbourly’s short in-between-season series while Shannon takes a break from regular interviews. Hosted by producer Johan Heinrichs, these episodes mix outdoor field notes and story-driven reflections that help us notice the ordinary ways care, faith, courage, and community show up around us.
In this first field note, Johan reflects on an empty chair he notices while walking through the neighbourhood. It may mean nothing, but it also raises a gentle question: who used to be part of our rhythm, and now seems to have quietly disappeared?
This episode is an invitation to notice the people who have gone quiet, stepped back, or faded from view, not with suspicion, but with care. Sometimes a simple check-in can remind someone that their absence was noticed and their presence still matters.
One Small Step
Think of one person who has been less present lately, then send a simple, no-pressure message to let them know they are noticed and not forgotten.
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Transcript
Welcome to Summer Speedos from Neighborly, our short in between season
Speaker:series. While Shannon takes a break from her regular interviews. I'm
Speaker:Johan, the producer of the show. Some episodes are field notes recorded
Speaker:outside in ordinary places where care actually happens. Others
Speaker:are story field notes, more cinematic reflections that start with a story
Speaker:from history or real life. Either way, we're paying attention to the small,
Speaker:ordinary ways care, faith, courage and community show up around us.
Speaker:So grab a cold drink or head out on that bike ride, walk or hike.
Speaker:Enjoy this year's edition of Summer Speedos from Neighbourly.
Speaker:Hey everyone. Welcome to the Neighbourly Podcast, a podcast about ordinary
Speaker:people showing extraordinary care. I'm Johan, the producer
Speaker:of the show. This summer, while Shannon takes
Speaker:a break from our regular interviews, we're doing a few shorter episodes called
Speaker:Field Notes on Ordinary Care. I'll be recording some of these while
Speaker:taking walks through my neighborhood. Maybe some parks,
Speaker:trails and places where life is actually happening.
Speaker:Because we're going to talk about loving our neighbors, it's probably
Speaker:going to help to occasionally leave the studio and stand near
Speaker:some actual neighbors. Also, my studio is a
Speaker:windowless basement office, so this is partly a creative
Speaker:choice and partly a public health intervention. I need
Speaker:a little sunlight so I don't look quite so pasty, like printer
Speaker:paper with headphones. Here I am sitting
Speaker:on a park bench. Birds are tweeting after a
Speaker:nice rainfall we had earlier this morning. Trees are green and
Speaker:it's pretty quiet. Anyway, on my way here on my
Speaker:walk, I came upon a house that had an empty chair
Speaker:outside and I don't know why it stopped me, but I couldn't decide whether it
Speaker:means absolutely nothing or maybe a little too much.
Speaker:It was just a chair, faded, a little tired,
Speaker:the kind of outdoor chair that looks like it has survived many summers
Speaker:and at least one family member saying we should really throw
Speaker:that out. It might mean nothing. Someone went inside,
Speaker:someone is at work, someone forgot it there and has
Speaker:emotionally moved on. But empty chairs have a way of
Speaker:asking questions. Who used to sit there? Who used
Speaker:to show up? What kind of conversations might one have
Speaker:had sitting at the chair across from someone else who
Speaker:used to be part of the rhythm and is now not around so much?
Speaker:Every community has empty chairs, not always
Speaker:literal ones. There's the one person who used to stay after
Speaker:church and now leaves quickly. The neighbor who used to wave and
Speaker:now keeps their head down. The friend who used to text
Speaker:back right away and now replies three days later,
Speaker:sorry, things have been a lot. There's the
Speaker:volunteer who quietly stepped back the family you've not seen
Speaker:in a while. The person who did not announce a crisis. They just
Speaker:slowly disappeared from the pattern. That kind of
Speaker:absence is easy to miss because it doesn't make
Speaker:noise. A crisis announces itself.
Speaker:Absence just leaves a little space where someone used to be.
Speaker:And if we're busy enough, we digest without asking why.
Speaker:That's not because we're terrible. It's because life keeps moving.
Speaker:But neighbourly care pays attention to absence. It
Speaker:asks who is not here. Not in a suspicious
Speaker:way, not in a clipboard way, and please don't
Speaker:become the attendance police of human suffering, but in a
Speaker:loving way. The way a shepherd notices one sheep missing.
Speaker:That image from Jesus has become so familiar that we can
Speaker:forget how tender it is. The the one matters.
Speaker:The missing one matters. The person who is not
Speaker:visible still belongs. People should not have to
Speaker:disappear dramatically before someone checks in.
Speaker:And the check in doesn't need to be dramatic either.
Speaker:Sometimes it's as simple as. Hey, I noticed I've not seen you
Speaker:in a while. No pressure. I just wanted to check in.
Speaker:Or you. You came to mind today. I'm
Speaker:grateful for you. Or maybe if life has
Speaker:been heavy lately, you don't have to explain it at all. I just wanted you
Speaker:to know that you are not forgotten. You see, that kind of message
Speaker:doesn't fix everything, but it does something important.
Speaker:It tells the person their absence was noticed and their
Speaker:presence matters. So this week, maybe
Speaker:look for the empty chairs. Who used to be part of your
Speaker:rhythm, who has gone quiet, who might need
Speaker:a gentle check in before the gaps get wider. You
Speaker:don't need to make it dramatic. Just notice.
Speaker:Then reach out with care. That is the field
Speaker:note. Keep noticing.
Speaker:It.
