City Lights

There are times I think perhaps we should move to town. I was having these thoughts just yesterday. A friend of mine is out of town, and she asked me to water her garden while she was away. Her home is in the middle of town, and as I was watering, I was thinking about how convenient living in town might be. I imagined how lovely it would be to be able to walk to the drugstore to buy milk or medicine, the way she can. I imagined how quickly I could get to my work from her home. I then began to reminisce about the house we lived in two years ago, a little white rental house smack in the middle of town. We only lived there a year, and there was much to dislike about this house. It was old, and falling apart, and located at an accident-prone intersection. I couldn’t wait to move out; I distinctly remember telling Jason that I wouldn’t miss a thing about that house. And it’s true that I don’t miss the house~ I miss the little conveniences of living in that house. We used to walk Bailey (she was just a puppy!) over to Harding and let her play in the fountain. I could run home on my conference period to put dinner in the crock pot, or to change my shirt after a coffee spill. Just like the apartment we lived in the first two years we were married, that house is the source of some very happy memories, and a few not-so-happy ones too. Eventually we decided to buy a home, and after living at such a busy intersection, we were excited about the house in the country.

As much as I wonder about living in town, I think just as often about living in California. Not that we plan to move back home (we don’t), but there are things about California that I took for granted growing up. Some of my favorite memories are of sitting in the driveway with my parents, watching the sunset, and then just sitting outside under the stars. Say what you will about Apple Valley, those sunsets and starry nights are second to none. I was disappointed when I moved to Arkansas, and couldn’t see the sunset or the stars very well. Furthermore, sitting outside and trying to enjoy the evening was made difficult by the pigeon-sized mosquitoes that one must constantly slap away. I missed terribly the simple pleasure of sitting outside and enjoying the evening.

Once we moved to our current home, I was excited to find that sunsets and evening skies became far more pronounced when removed from the lights of town. We discovered that on the evenings when humidity had not wrapped itself around our home like an afghan, sitting outside was quite pleasant. The best time is May, when the fireflies are out in droves. It’s amazing to see~ thousands of twinkles, deep in the grass and high in the trees. I had never seen anything like it, and I kept telling Jason, “It looks like Disneyland out there!” Lightning shows are pretty, but a lightning bug show is one of God’s best-kept secrets. Our schedules do not allow us to do this often, but lately we have been making an effort to go outside about 8:30 or so and just enjoy the evening. It is such a lovely time of day, and since we live away from the streams and rivers in the county, we don’t even have mosquitoes to tolerate.

When I got home yesterday, I continued to think about living in town. This is not a new topic of consideration. Jason and I frequently talk about the pros and cons of living where we do. But he was in class last night, and I was left to consider these thoughts alone. Even though he wasn’t home, I still stopped what I was doing and went outside at 8:30. I sat on the porch and admired the clouds, and listened to the frogs and cicadas and the children playing two doors down. And I decided that I didn’t mind so much that I couldn’t walk to the store to buy milk. It seemed not to matter anymore that I have to leave a littler earlier for work. I have a porch, and a sunset, and a husband who stops and picks up ice cream on his way home. Country or town, Arkansas or California… it doesn’t matter. I have all I need.