This summer I spent some time considering a move to Des Moines, but after talking to a realtor (what was I thinking?) and finding out how impenetrable the subsidized housing process is there, I changed my mind. Instead I opted to work at making Marshalltown my Home.
I grew up here and have been back for ten years, but I never really thought of it as home. Growing up on a farm, “town” was a place to get groceries, a place the school bus dropped me off and picked me up. After going through electroshock, losing my job, my home, and my husband coming back to Marshalltown mentally ill was a personal failure and a punishment.
I left Minneapolis with its liberal politics, diversity of culture and a townhouse I loved for a conservative rural backwater where I lived in my friends’ spare room with a curtain for a door. I didn’t want to be here.
My life became richer over the last ten years. I learned how to manage my illness better. I moved into an apartment I loved. Our eco-conscious public library and busy YMCA became part of my daily routine. I embraced our Aquatic Center by water walking in the silky summer evenings.
But I still despised the town. I hated the trains blasting at 5:00 AM along with the barking dogs and screeching kids next door. I hated the yahoos who barreled along my street with their woofers blowing out my eardrums and their muffler-less pickups rattling my windows. I hated the decrepit meth-lab houses and the soul-sucking poverty evident on most every street. I still didn’t want to be here.
The work of Making a Home, I’ve discovered, is much like the work of Gratitude. Instead of focusing on what I’m grateful for, I purposely seek out what I love about Marshalltown. I quiz others about where they like to eat and hang-out, what they like to do here. I’ve started reading the newspaper to look for events to attend and to get a better sense of the community. I plan to take a class at the art center or with the continuing education program at our junior college.
Another part of making a home is practicing forgiveness, not just accepting people, places and circumstances for what they are. The first target of forgiveness must be myself—for all the ways I let myself down, abandoned my dreams or my safety, and let the negative voices of my illness tell me how horrible I was. Acceptance of my whole self took decades, but I feel like forgiveness can’t be that far away. Whenever old resentments or regrets surface, I open to the possibility of forgiveness. Whenever I turn my attention to the negative aspects of Marshalltown, I open to forgiveness and pull up my list of “Marshalltown Love” on my phone. It’s startling how many times a day this happens. It’s equally startling how long it’s taken me to be willing to forgive myself and others.
Forgiveness, like gratitude, requires a change of perspective, a change of heart. Sometimes those changes are a long time coming, so I’ve adopted an “act as if” attitude until it makes a home in my bones. But, I’m determined to forgive. I’m determined to find all the hidden spots of beauty and compassion in Marshalltown. I’m determined to be my authentic self and thrive here.
Because, I’m still on an Adventure.
Sep 19, 2017 @ 21:09:58
Reblogged this on NANMYKEL.COM and commented:
Great attitude and I see it’s working! Congratulations on the wisdom. I’m re-blogging
Sep 20, 2017 @ 10:34:41
Thank you for passing me along. 🙂
Sep 19, 2017 @ 22:15:49
Sandy….
I read your blog today and reflected on our same discussion about this when we got together. And later today I read the following…just sending it along. ♡
“…Negative thoughts and negative people can’t take root in my life if I don’t let them. My life is like a garden–what grows here is in my control. Unwelcome seeds may drift in on the wind, and renegade runners may sneak in under the fence, but I can pull out the things I don’t want in order to make room for the flowers.
We can try to Stop watering the weeds in our lives and start watering the flowers.”
Anonymous
Sep 20, 2017 @ 10:34:04
This is great, Cat. Most of the time, we are our own worst Gardeners.
Sep 20, 2017 @ 08:41:05
Wow, where’s the “Love” button ?? 😍
Sep 20, 2017 @ 10:32:57
Awww. Thanks so much.
Sep 20, 2017 @ 09:00:20
Cheering for you every day, Sandy!
Sep 20, 2017 @ 10:32:39
That is just the sweetest thing, Lori. I can hear you.
Sep 20, 2017 @ 10:48:45
Thanks for sharing Sandy.
Sep 20, 2017 @ 13:58:49
And thanks for reading. 🙂
Sep 20, 2017 @ 21:16:49
Your are a poster child for resilience and perseverance. Inspiring and inspired.
Sep 21, 2017 @ 11:13:56
Oh, you sweet-talker, you.
Sep 20, 2017 @ 21:45:24
What a powerful change of perspective … and commitment to a better future. Good for you Sandy!
Sep 21, 2017 @ 11:13:30
I can feel that it is powerful. This morning there was a two-car accident on my corner. Minor injuries, but the police cuffed a thuggish-looking young man. My first thought was “drugs.” My second thought was, “Breakfast AND a show!”
Sep 21, 2017 @ 14:58:21
LOL … 😂
Sep 21, 2017 @ 09:10:51
This is so true! One of my sisters lives in our hometown – moved back there 20 years ago, but has always looked down her nose on the place and the people. Home is what you make of it, just like life.
Interesting that the sermon at my church on Sunday was all about forgiveness. If we don’t forgive, how can we expect God to do so?
Sep 21, 2017 @ 11:10:47
I love how synchronisity bites us in the butt.