Coming Full Circle

I haven't read a book in a while that I really connected with.  I just finished reading So Much Sky by Karen Weir-Jimerson.  The book is a collection of short stories about living in the country in Iowa.  This book brought me full circle.  It reminded me of how I grew up.  I could relate to so many of her stories; shearing sheep in the spring time, bottle feeding lambs, being able to go out to the garden and pick our food for that night’s dinner and all the splendor of the Iowa State Fair.  

The book also made me realize how much plans and dreams can change as we grow up.  I couldn't wait to get out of the country and out of a small town when I was in high school.  I was determined to be a city girl.  In fact, I actually remember telling my parents that I wanted to live in a city that had a traffic report.  When my best friend got a job offer in Minneapolis and asked if I would move with her, I jumped at the opportunity to move to a big city.  

I bought my “single girl in the city house” just outside of Minneapolis and thought I was set.  Then I fell in love and got married and eventually had a baby.  Now that “single girl in the city house” just isn't cutting it.   I long for the privacy of the country and want to have space for my child and dog to run free.  I want to have chickens scratching in the yard and pick their fresh eggs.  And I want to be able to use the phrase, "Go into town."   

It's amazing how this book really got me thinking. What I ended up wanting in life in the long run, I had the entire time.  It made me sad the more I thought about this.  But then I realized if I hadn't  pursued my dreams of being a city girl, I probably wouldn't have appreciated what I had growing up and realized that my heart is in the country.  I also wouldn't have met my amazing husband and had the best kid a mom could ask for.   

I know that eventually my family will end up living in the country because that's where we're meant to be.  Whether it's in the country I know so well in Iowa or I discover country living in Minnesota, that's still up in the air.   For now visits to the country keep me satisfied and help keep my dreams alive.   One day, I will be able to look out my kitchen window and see a sea of corn fields and look up from my yard and see so much sky.