Learning to Love Where We Live
In this post-PCS season, I think it’s worth mentioning that every assignment every place you live, comes with bad things. We don’t always love where we live. In fact, I’m sure most of us could list half a dozen things, without even thinking about it, that we don’t like about where we are currently stationed.
The winter is too long, the summer is too short, the allergies are brutal, it’s too far to the nearest Target, the way people drive here is OMGTRYINGTOKILLME, and tourists… tourists everywhere.
Creating a list like that is all too easy. And not just for where we live. In life, in general, it’s easier to complain.
It’s easy to find things that frustrate and annoy us.
It’s easier to tell a story about being mistreated in some way than to recognize all the small acts of kindness we see.
It’s easier to believe that the grass will be greener on the other side of the next PCS.
But it won’t be.
I’m learning that right now that.
Perhaps I haven’t given enough credit to the adage that life is what you make it. I’ve been a go-with-the-flow, tumble-accidentally-into-the-next-adventure, things-just-happen-and-you-may-never-know-why kind of person. A sometimes-you-like-where-you-are-and-sometimes-you-just-don’t kind of person.
As if I had no say in the matter.
Then, a few weeks ago I was on my way to work one morning. I go up and over a mountain, which looks out over the Hudson River Valley, directly over where we live. And for the first time, even though I have driven this road many times, I realized suddenly I had to pull over.
I had never seen this view before. I didn’t realize where we lived was so…beautiful.
The next day I stopped again.
And then again.
And once again.
Those few moments, standing on the side of the road, appreciating the view of our home-for-now home, has created a change in me.
I’m beginning to appreciate it for what it is, instead of holding it hostage for what it isn’t.
Maybe the seasons aren’t what I would choose, but they are perfect for creating the individual beauty of this place.
Maybe the allergies are an annoyance, but the greenery on the banks of this river is breathtaking.
Maybe the Target is farther than is convenient, but my view is untainted by shopping malls and freeway billboards.
Maybe the drivers are in too much of a hurry, but I can always pull over and gladly let them pass me by while I enjoy a beautiful sunrise.
Maybe there are tourists everywhere, but honestly now… how can I blame them when they can come here and see this?
I’m committed to continuing to find and see the good here, wherever it may be, and in our future duty stations as well. There is so much in military life we absolutely cannot control, but the one thing we can always control is our own attitude.
Learning to love where we live and bloom where we are planted, whatever the season in our lives, is one of the greatest strengths of the military spouse.
How can you learn to love and appreciate where you live a little bit more?
