I have been recognizing how the places you have been lead you to the places you should be. Our family recently made a big decision. Mike took a job in Mesa with the hospital he is currently working at. It was a heavily weighed decision that we spent countless hours pondering over. A list of pros and cons were a mile long, and no one answer was perfect. However, in the end we feel peace. Peace is what I crave for in this life, and peace is what we have felt about the decision to stay in Arizona.
Mike and I never thought Arizona would be a place we would call home if asked 12 years ago when we met. The sure answer was Utah. Life was different. We had not experienced 10 years of Mike's medical training, five moves, four kids, loss of loved ones, exhaustion in the journey, and joy in doing "hard and new" things. Some of our very closest friends in Pennsylvania were from Arizona. We started hearing a lot about the strong family values and great place it was to live.
There were many days in Pennsylvania where I craved for three things family, sunshine, and a place with strong family values prevalent similar to the ones I had grown up with. The humid weather and long winters began to weigh more heavily on me over the years in Pennsylvania. The fact that we didn't have a garage, couldn't afford vacations, and lived in an quaint but older drafty house added to my distaste for long winters. However because we experienced life the way we did it led us to make a decision we feel good about. Had we not moved away to Harrisburg for ten years I am quite certain we would not be here in Arizona. I really believe that events in your life lead you to where you are suppose to go.
We feel a purpose and plan here in Arizona. It is something unexplainable....but a strong feeling nonetheless. It doesn't completely make sense considering over half of our family and most extended family live in Utah. However, in my heart and my husbands it makes sense to be here now. The moment we drove across the Arizona state line we had a strong feeling of being "home". That comfortable feeling is peace. The sunshine and desert surroundings surprisingly have brought peace to my soul that I didn't expect. I believe life doesn't always take you to the places you think it will, but it will lead you to lessons you are suppose to learn.
I have moments of pangs and longings for Utah. I have moments when I feel like I am being disloyal to my roots by living away. However those moments are fleeting when I realize Utah is a days drive away, the sun is shining often here, and my kids life is filled with laughter and happiness in friendships they have already created. Life is not perfect by any sense of the imagination. A quote I heard recently that makes me smile rather than the "Grass is always greener" goes.... "The grass is actually brown on both sides of the fence, it is up to us to water it."
Cheers to making decisions big and small. Cheers to making the most of situations at hand. Cheers to recognizing the places we have been can always influence our decisions for the future. We learn from both the good and the bad!
Happy MONDAY!
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