I am falling in love. I didn’t see it coming. I realized it on Saturday morning when I took a long bike ride. The sights and the smells were overpowering to my senses. I felt full of an intense awareness of simple beauty. I rode through the town and past the fields. I heard the sound of the birds chirping and the leaves rustling in the wind. In town, I watched people watering their flowers. I saw families enjoying their Saturday morning. There were dads blowing up floats for pool fun. There were kids holding signs for garage sales. People were cutting their grass.
I rode past the airfield. Planes were taking off and landing. It was a beautiful day for a flight. I rode past many fields. I saw so many flowers! The flowers in the yards were beautiful. The flowers in the fields were magnificent. The smell of the wildflowers and “weedflowers” made me breathe deep. The sun was warm but there was a nice breeze. I passed barns. I passed horses grazing. I noticed the small details of the rolling hills. It was such a calm morning in my little town.
I realized during my ride that this town came to me (rather I came to it) at a perfect time in my life. I am slowing down. I am learning how to appreciate pleasures that I took for granted. Each day it seems I am becoming more content with what I have. It is because there aren’t many places to go in my little town. I lost a lot of convenience when I moved here. I also lost access to an abundance of unnecessary spending. It frustrates me often but through the process I am realizing that I am quite okay without escaping for a Starbucks getaway. I have always loved city life. The combined activity level, unique cafes, shops, events, and abundance of people presents itself as a meca of fun. I still think cities are exciting. But, suddenly… through a hard process of personal evolution, I am awaking to the joy of small town living. Now when I want to get out of the house, I aspire to take a brisk walk or a bike ride. Sometimes I head over to the community pool to swim laps. I am finding time for hobbies that I used to long to do. Commercialism isn’t pulling at me as much and I am more aware of myself. I am not bombarded by a desire for more. I am concentrating on who I want to become. This is a simple joy. I am thankful for this place and time in my life. I am falling in love with small town living. It is filling me with a new love for my life.
5 comments:
Thank you for this post. I have been struggling with being content. Matt will tell you that as well. I also loved the imagery in your words. It made me feel like I was riding your bike with you. Thank you.
Your post was beautiful. It just gave such a wonderfully descriptive picture of a feeling I've had off and on throughout the years. After growing up mainly in small towns I have a huge affinity for them. But once I was older and moved back into a large or larger town there were so many "new" things for me to do. But as I continue to get older my roots are drawing me back to that small town feel that I love. So glad that you are able to start feeling a bit of that love as well!
I figured you were going to either fall in love with it, or go mad. Thank you for being such a perfect wife!
you are so poetic about our small town. truthfully i have had such a downer attitude about this little town, thank you for making me take a second look. i do have a brand new banana-seat bike i had to have a few years back that i think i've only ridden 3 times. maybe we could go on a bike ride sometime? that would make my husband so thrilled that i was actually using it! :)
Thanks for directing me to this post--you are most definitely a "not so fast" woman as you roll so comfortably into this slower pace. Love the post. Too bad we hadn't met when I was working on the book--I could have interviewed you!
I'll tell you what--I'll link to this from my www.NotSoFastBook.com blog.
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