My family and I joined Monroe Organic Farms’ CSA this past year. Each week, Monroe would drop off a handful of shares at a neighbor’s home, and everyone would come by to pick up their vegetables. Along with getting big bags of beautiful produce each week, I got to know the Monroe family more deeply, along with Mary Ann, my neighbor, who sat in her garage for two hours every week distributing the farm shares.

Have you ever felt pressure from people or situations at work or in your neighborhood that you can’t fully control? The practice of Circles of Responsibility is adapted from Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and is designed to guide you in many aspects of discernment, including decision-making clarity, reducing anxiety, navigating conflict, and helping people shift from rumination to responsibility.

When we think about leadership, we often picture roles “out there”—at work, church, or on a nonprofit board. But leadership starts closer to home—right in our neighborhoods. No matter where you live—condo, apartment, or cul-de-sac—there are simple, powerful ways to lead. Sociologists say we all have five “neighborhoods”: familial (extended family), relational (friends), digital (online presence), psychographic (shared-interest groups), and geographic. Jesus calls us to love all our neighbors, but let’s focus on our literal, geographic ones.

My refrigerator has a feature for families like ours. It beeps when the door is left open over a set amount of time. This is particularly helpful in households with multiple people, especially during lunchtime when leftovers are being brought out and put back in batches. We don’t realize the fridge door is open, so it beeps to alert us. The problem is I often don’t hear the high-pitched chirp. I’m not sure if it’s the tone or the noise of the kitchen, regardless of the cause, I tune it out and keep making sandwiches.

Pausing is an invitation to interact with our lives, our neighbors and neighborhoods, with intention. It is a practice to be present to the sacredness of the people and place around us.

Creating space prioritizes hearing and responding to what God is doing in and around us. It is an intentional way to open ourselves to receive the extravagant love of God, and then extend that love to our neighbors and neighborhoods.