Strawberries of Contentment

Two friends wisdom has helped me start to find contentment where we live. The first friend told me several years ago, jokingly, but it was too close to true that I never went outside, just stuck my arm out for the mail. When she said that I knew it was true and I knew why, there are no mountains to look at, no elk or herds of deer, no perfect blue days, no being able to see 100 miles off and watch the storms roll across the prairie, no mountain streams, no snow on the mountains, did you get it there are no mountains here!

My other friend moved to the mountains several years back, she posted pictures of her new home and I cried and cried, in part for joy for my friend because she got to live in such a gorgeous place but mostly just out of selfishness because I didn't. Recently I was complaining again about the lack of scenery here, it's just boring mid-west stuff, corn, more corn, soybeans and trees, oh what I would give for wide stretches of sage brush, yards with no grass and only a tree here or there but not this tree tree everywhere of here. That same day the lady that delivers our milk came, she brought asparagus, fresh spinach and we got to order more chickens, all grown locally, all organic or as close as possible, all scrumptiously delicious and all affordable. That's when my friend told me 'you can't feed your family scenery.' Wise friends are irreplaceable.

I am learning to be content, I am learning that content is a choice, I have known this all my life, my parents were wise teachers of this, and yet again I find that I am a child in the lessons of life and again I am learning them. My husband has a good call to two little churches who need him and who he delights to serve, my son has things both for his health and his education within reach here, I have a good doctor who is actually helping me get healthier and while there may not be mountains the strawberries are delicious, the milk lady will be back each week and I'm even finding that the more I go outside the more I find that I like here. There may not be mountains, but the clouds are beautiful, the trees are amazing to watch when I look at them as individuals and not as a mass of scenery blocking green, and each day that passes I find that I grow more content, thanks be to God, both for the place that I live and the wise friends who help me to really see.