This is for my own interest to see if I can get into words what runs through my head on this...I am sure that my brain is twisted somewhat biased on the subject...and I'm sure that I need to work on my perspective on the idea...but here goes...
Last week one day I posted to my family's group text and asked the brother who moved west a question...being this..."Does living in Idaho make you feel like you are on a permanent vacation? I could never get over the fact that i lived in such a beautiful place when i was there...Like I went to a cabin but I got that benefit even tho I still had to hold a job! :-)"
Last night another brother threw the question back to me..."why can't you learn to see how beautiful it is here in SC?" Hmmmmm...Very good question Delvin! I don't know how to fairly and clearly answer that question...because I think that I DO see the beauty here...Right now SC is heading into it's PEAK of beauty! Spring is the best time here! When EVERYTHING is budding and turning green and the yards and woods are full of flowers! Yestereday i went with a friend to the Local gardens and we enjoyed a frigid afternoon among the azaleas in bloom! I love SC this time of year! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now... and I LOVE the green of SC summers! I don't love the humidity of the summer or the dampness of the winter...but I do see the beauty and Love it!
But I think the real perspective here is to remember what I was like when I was about 15-16...I remember one of my best friends/cousins had to move away with her family for a spell and I knew that there was NO place on earth like the south (there actually really isn't;-) ...All of us girls my age were quite opinionated about this...We didn't like that she was moving and we immersed ourselves in the theory that SC was the ONLY place that a sane person would live...we became almost patriotic about it even...but as the years pass and new experiences have come into my life I've come to realize that really if SC was the ONLY place to live there would be WAY too many people here! So I'm glad there's other places and climates...AND benefits to all!
For instance, case in point...I have lived in ID and WI for different periods of time...I've visited AZ, PA, OH, MT and random other places on the map. I love Wisconsin as it reminds me a lot of my hometown with it's lush green in the summer...but the times I was there in the winter there were Lots of Drab gray trees with mounds of snow everywhere! I love the beauty of the snow and how it mutes everything and covers the drab gray ground...Arizona is ruggedly beautiful in it's own way...i think i would have to find some lake to live near tho! ;-) but it does take you breath away in a lot of places...(if you can survive the intense heat;-) Pennsylvania has it's lovely spots..but SO.MANY.PEOPLE!! and Ohio is sort of the same way although i don't think I can be fairly just to either State...And Montana...it's Majestic! and Rolling! and has a BIG sky!!! I can't do it justice either! ;-) I actually lived in Idaho for about 10 months...It doesn't compare to a lifetime or experience at all! But when I was in Idaho I often wondered if i would ever get tired of looking and seeing the beautiful mountains...I wondered how i would feel about them if i had lived there all of my life? If I didn't know the difference would I really see how truly lovely it is out there? Like most people go to places like that on vacation...for a week or so to a cabin...I would drive down into town and it would take my breath away just about every single time...there was a really tall mountain right there on the edge town the soars close to a river which winds it's way thru the valley...All that I was missing there was the actual vacation! ;-) But hey if I had the benefit of stunning beauty year round who was I to complain? So I wonder? What if i did live there all the time? Would i start to take it for granted like I do here in SC? Did I just see everything out there with rainbow tinted glasses? Do I see it in a distorted way that isn't true to life? Do I actually need to work on my contentment in life? Do I need to learn to just forget? How is that even possible?
Maybe I've just had my heart splintered into a million pieces and have left a piece of it all over the western hemisphere? And maybe i could not be completely content in any one place? Maybe I'm supposed to remember that verse that we are pilgrim and strangers? I really can do justice to how I feel about this...but the short time i spent in the west daily resonates in my heart daily and I can't really explain what keeps me in the east I feel like maybe God has something to do with it...I needed to spend that year out there to grow my up...Somewhat...to help me realize that we DON'T have to be SO set in where we CAN or CAN'T live...and there are other ways of doing things and that MY community is NOT the final say of everything...just because somebody does something different then I know how doesn't mean we do it the right way! Honestly, I thought that before! How could i be so naive? There's a lot of ways to teach school....play games...have potlucks...talk...have sewing circle and even church. Even the clothes we wear and the shoes they buy aren't weird just cause we might think they are! And just cause they drive a beater of a vehicle DO NOT make them UNCOOL! Why do people do that to people?
Maybe that's why my heart pulls so hard? Because my perspective on life changed? My priorities changed? My opinions changed? My whole LIFE changed? Whatever the case I got my Grandma and Grandpa all to myself MANY days and i got to grow up with Skrivseth cousins for a little...and have friends for life in my aunts...that i wouldn't have had otherwise! So yes, I'm going to LOVE on Idaho...I'll try to Love on SC more...and I'll try to be sensitive to your questions and feelings on the matter...but try to be ok with mine too! ;-)
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