Skip to main content

Small Town Living


I live in a small town, but it wasn’t always that way. I spent the first half of my life in busy Chicago with lots of people and waiting in long lines and hunting for parking spaces. Now I’m living in the center of Arizona in a small community just outside of Sedona. I never have to worry when someone sends my mail by mistake to my physical address instead of post office box because they know me personally and do not return it to sender. It’s comforting, too, to know the staff at the bank so personally. One of the gals bought a house from me and I love to hear to hear how much she likes it. On the way home yesterday, my husband and I attended the Grand Opening at the new Dollar Store just up the road from us. At the checkout, the clerk introduced herself to us and made us feel welcome. My husband, Tom, mentioned the good price of the dog food and said he’d be back tomorrow for more. With that she packed in a coupon. Upon leaving, we noticed that we only had one water container in our bag. We failed to purchase the second one still sitting on the counter and another man was ready to check out. So Tom said he’d get it later. And the clerk replied “get it tomorrow when you come back for the dog food.” This made me laugh. She paid attention; she cared! Do I miss the sea of people and the enthusiasm at museums or the skyscrapers along Lake Michigan? I do. I comfort myself with the beauty of mountains, rodeos, and extraordinary sunsets. It’s good to have experienced the best of both worlds!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spiritual Sundays ~ Flamboyant Love

I was shopping for a birthday card during my lunch hour last week when I overheard an elderly woman in the card aisle talking to her niece, a woman about my age. Here is what she said: “ I threw out all my cards. They never meant those words anyway .” Lots of laughter followed. How sad I thought to be unable to receive the love sent to her in the sentiments of a card. This incident got me thinking about the love of God and resolving to embrace it when it is offered to me. It doesn’t matter if I think I’m worthy of such extravagant love; He thinks so! In contrast, just a day later I received one of those gorgeous hand-crafted cards in the mail from my friend, Kay, who loves paper crafting. It was so pretty and love and joy just oozed out of it when I opened it. This is a sample of her designs at Creativity is Good. Kay wrote a beautiful note to me in the card reminding me of God’s tender love for me. She ended her thoughts with “The God of the universe loves us more than we can ever f...

Holiday Movie Comes to Life

It’s uncanny when a new holiday movie comes out and resembles your personal life.   I came clean to my husband on that drive to the Harkins in Sedona confessing that the movie got bad ratings.   It isn’t the type of movie that he would choose to see in the first place.   Rotten Tomatoes gave it one star.   My prince charming replied:   “ Let’s see what we think of it and rate it ourselves.”   Yes!   High five to his palm! It started out as a fun afternoon date.   It would have been perfect if the lady directly in front of me didn’t have on super-strength perfume.   Smells can be troublesome when you’re prone to headaches.   I stuck my head in a big bucket of buttered popcorn; you know-- to alleviate her fragrance, because popcorn smell is less offensive.   What else is a girl like me to do? We named the genre “drama with comedy.”   Cast of characters acted like the typical family scene at Christmas tim...

A Memorial Day Reflection

  Memorial Day is always noteworthy for me and my girls.  Next Thursday marks the third year of missing their father, my husband. So many thoughts  run through my mind.  The journey of loss takes on various emotions.  The strongest feeling, at first, was emptiness.  In a split second, I would forget he departed forever.  I imagined things I needed to talk to him about when he got back home.  My mind is realistic now.  He's not coming back.  There will be no more times of sitting on the porch swing together on the front deck staring at the moon and the stars.  He would tell me all he knew about the majestic night sky. I have so much I wish I could tell him, like the excitement of seeing our oldest grandchild make a decision to follow Jesus and get baptized on Mother's Day!  And our little Amy, 11 years old, I wish he could have seen her on stage receiving her induction to the National Honor Society. Our daughters have their own ...