The Rhythm of Life

I finally feel like I've found it: the rhythm of small town life.  Last night I was driving home from a church bridal shower thinking over my day.  I felt challenged and valued at my job; I talked to the right people about the right things; a friend I ran into at the grocery store helped me pick out a card for the bridal shower; I ate leftovers with my husband; I put my daughter to bed after snuggling and rocking for a while.  *sigh*  This is life.  And I love it.

Maybe what's got me in this mood is that I had that conversation with myself today, the "why is a girl who's got an MA from Georgetown living in small town Nebraska?"  The ancients knew the answer:  Happiness.  So said Aristotle anyway - happiness is the goal toward which we all strive.

I realize that happiness for many people would NOT be to move to a tiny town in nowhere'sville Nebraska, but for me, that's exactly the recipe for happiness.  I got used to the rhythm of life in a big city: headphones, iPods, Kindles, deadlines, long commutes, traffic, subway systems, and people everywhere.  

I lived closer to more people in the DC area than I ever had in my life.  I lived in 750 square feet and had people on 3 sides, and for 2 floors below.  The 5-level parking garage was always packed with my neighbor's cars.  And I knew no one.  I can't tell you my neighbor's names, and I lived there for a year.  Just as we were getting ready to move out, I learned that a friend I'd met during college lived in the same apartment complex - I knew what his dog looked like, but had never realized it was him walking the dog - I never looked up.  That's not how life worked there.    

It's not that that's a bad rhythm.  It's just that it's not the rhythm by which I want to live my life.  I and my husband get to choose how to live, and we choose to live here.  And we have chosen to think of traffic as having to sit through more than one light change at one of the 2 traffic lights in town.  

We know lots of people in the area and are constantly meeting more people who we will run into again and again.  Our kids will go to school with their kids, we'll sit at ball games in the summer together, and if we get into a huge fight, it matters, because we'll have to live as neighbors in our little town forever.  Please don't misunderstand - I know there are great neighborhoods and great things about the rhythm of life in the city.  But there are great things about the rhythm of life here, and I'm just glorying in those things at the moment.  

Last week was the start of school around here, and also the start of our fall "routine," part of which includes regular part time work hours for me at school.  Lily came with me for part of a day, and she was ready.  At 10 1/2 months, she looks WAY too old!!! 

It's like a glimpse into the future - 5 years from now...

And after a few hours at school she was exhausted.  That next morning I found her in her crib, sleeping like this:

Life is good.  And it feels good to dance in time with the rhythm.