Category: Connections

Learning to Love Where You Live

Learning to love where you live may sound silly. Perhaps you answer, “Of course, I love where I live!” But do you really?

Learning to Love Where You Live

Loving something is more than accepting the situation. It’s feeling gratitude, joy, and happiness within your heart. Furthermore, it is feeling this within your body. For me, I feel an expansion of lightness in my chest.

In my last location, I spent a lot of time dwelling on what was ‘wrong’ with my space. It was only through the pandemic’s isolation that I realized my attitude needed to change.

Steps Toward a Change in Attitude

  1. Make a list of everything you appreciate about your situation
  2. Commit toward spending time everyday enveloped in at least one appreciation
  3. Check in weekly to notice any positive change
  4. Express gratitude for any progress

Moving to a New Home

This is the stage I’m in. Not only did I choose this home, I felt it chose me. Yet, my commitment was lacking.

Once it was clear to me that something different was needed, a way to connect with my home came into my life through one of The Healing Hummingbird’s videos on YouTube. As I stood in the center of my house, I spoke this affirmation from Louise Hay …

“I bless my home with love. I put love in every corner and my home lovingly responds with warmth and comfort. I am at peace.”

Watch Meredith’s video for other ways to connect to your house with love.

Making a House a Home

This process is different for each of us.

For example, I bought a hummingbird feeder to invite any late migrating birds for a stopover outside the dining room window. With every meal, we enjoy watching the ruby throated hummers drink deeply from the feeder.

And don’t worry about keeping them in your area too long. You can read more about it on the Cornell Lab website. In fact, here’s the recipe for making your own hummingbird nectar.

It is the People You Meet

It is the people you meet that matter most. This is true throughout life, whether on a trip, settling in a new location, or choosing to stay in the county where you were born.

It is the People You Meet in…

The Library

Ashe County A historyWhile seeking help learning about the local history, I met Lee. She and I found common ground with our family names. Actually, my older sister was named for aunts on each side of my parents’ families. Similarly, Lee’s name is a combination of her two grandmothers, ‘Little Elizabeth Ellen’, a perfect diplomatic solution. Pictured is the local history book Lee pulled from the reference stacks, a delectable, detailed history.

Mt. Jefferson State Park

Great lobeliaHoping to find a recommendation for a plant identification book, I chanced upon Wildlife Officer McIntyre in the park office. As I explained my deep appreciation for wildflowers, he was busy writing notes, his blue-green eyes smiling above his mask.

Sharing my photo of a roadside flower near my home, we keyed out great lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica. Consequently, my copy of Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, is on the way. Another employee showed me how to use my own photos for easy identification in iNaturalist, now an app on my iPhone front screen.

The NEIGHBORHOOD

Neighbors are easy to meet when walking, either for personal exercise or combined with your dog. Sugar and I walk daily along the road in front of the house.

The South Fork of the New RiverWe’ve met Joe and his dog, Bailey, our closest neighbors with a home on our street. Walking the opposite direction, we met Alex and his rescue dog. As rural residents, we are each eager to open our mailbox for the mystery contents. That’s how we met Scooby, the German Shepherd, and his owner, Alex, at an intersection of the South Fork of the New River lined with a row of mailboxes. In fact, the FedEx truck was also there. Yes, we love our delivery people too.

May you enjoy the people you meet this week!

Can You Love a Grocery Store?

Can you love a grocery store? I seem to. Perhaps it’s because it has been in my life, via my mother, longer than my physical existence.

Where Shopping is a Pleasure

This is a pretty simple concept. Yet it shows a caring attitude about their customers. ‘Where Shopping is a Pleasure’ exemplifies my personal experience with Publix, a native Polk County Florida grocery store. Now couple this slogan with their signature green.

Why is Green Special?

Green signifies growth and nature. Placing a white ‘P’ on a field of green feels like a purity of spirit. Furthermore, green is the color associated with the heart chakra. Did you think pink? There is a philosophy that pink signifies a healing heart. That feels right to me too.

History Affects Our Perspective

Mom and Dad married at the First Baptist Church, across the street from the historic first Publix supermarket, in Winter Haven, Florida. Even though they settled in Dundee, seven miles away, Mom often traveled to this first Publix when she couldn’t find an item at Helm’s Grocery in our tiny rural town.

I have vivid memories of this building, especially the glass tiles. Later, after a newer Publix was built, the building housed a Morrison’s Cafeteria. Those memories are even clearer.

On the rare occasions, when Dad was fishing in Placida or Chokoloskee, Mom took us to Morrison’s after church. I always requested the same selections; fried shrimp, cornbread stick and a salad with cucumber, tomato, and onion. Always. If I was really hungry, I chose a slice of coconut custard pie.

Bring Joy into the Mundane

Can you love a grocery store, the whine of a power saw, the tinkle of a bell when you enter a store, or the smell of rain? Absolutely. Stopping to notice everyday occurrences and allowing the joy into your heart brings happiness to yourself, your companions at the time, family, even strangers, like the veteran who offered to snap my picture in the Publix parking lot.