What has astonished me lately?

I read Barb’s research on the definition of the word astonish and I have experienced it once in the past couple of weeks. That said, I did not experience wonder just surprise. I do not live in an apartment building or a duplex. I have a house with a good size yard and a privacy fence so when I graciously attempted to talk to a neighbor about turning down his music that was making my whole house vibrate–Music that he had been playing for hours–I thought it was a reasonable request. I had put up with the loud music several times but it had never before went on for hours and hours. Well, he screamed at me, called me a name I can’t put in this sharing (first word starts with “f” and second word starts with “b”). He then ordered me off his property as he slammed his front door in my face. I’ve never been called such a name and I’ve never been ordered off of someone’s property for knocking on their door and making a valid request. Talk about sudden and over-powering surprise! I was in shock. As I headed home, I heard him screaming and calling me that name again and telling his family that he would show me. He’d turn the music up even higher but thankfully, someone in his family prevailed and the music was turned down. My shock past quickly enough but when I think about the incident, every cell in my body still seems to vibrate and I feel sad. I’m glad I just walked away and did not react. As the young man featured in the gratefulness.org video the last few days says, “Just be nice.” And if our paths cross, I will be nice and kind but I will not apologize for asking him to lower the volume on his music. Healthy boundaries are important.