Our lives are a journey

I basically grew up on a lake in Alabama with my grandparents, but my real home, (with my parents) was at the bottom of a mountain in a valley nearby. I went hiking, fishing, and rode my bike a lot. I roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, wasted lazy hours in hammocks, explored endless river bends, creeks, crooks, and the like. I spent many happy hours around campfires, ran into my unfair share of spider webs, and had my own tire swing and tree house in my front yard. It was a beautiful place, and I think back to my childhood constantly and am so blessed that it does nothing but make me smile. I even wish that all kids could have had my childhood, because to me, it was absolutely perfect. But life happens, and eventually my family and I moved. Out of town. Out of state. To West Texas. A place where there are no trees, or lively bodies of water, or even bike trails. It felt like I went from one extreme to the other. The only nice thing I could muster up the courage to say about this place is that I liked that I could see miles and miles around me. If an army was marching in, I would know in good time and get away to safety. To be completely honest, when my family and I first moved out here, I was so numb from all the excitement of newness, new place, new school, new people, new family, that I did not even notice where I really was. The thought of missing what I knew had not yet come to fruition. As I got older, I would hear other kids talk about going out of town all the time, driving hours away to go have their weekend escape at the closest body of water. To me, this started to become strange. In Alabama, we drove twenty minutes to go to the lake in one direction, and twenty minutes to go to the State Park in the other. I started to miss things. Fireflies do not exist in West Texas. Nor do green snakes, or hills for that matter. Now, I know it may seem horrible, but as I have grown into the women I sometimes think that I am, I have realized some very wonderful truths. I have lived in some really beautiful places, and traveled and discovered greatness. However, most of my life has been played out here, in dirty, windy West Texas. Although this little (big) town is not much to look at, if you open your eyes and close your mouth, you can see that this place has beauty to be discovered. Its in the sky, in the dirt, in the people. I can tell you there are no trees, but that would be a lie. There are lots of them. I had to change my view to really be able to see.