Southern Deliverance

I guess if I am baring my soul on this blog, I will confess what those who know me best already know about me.  I never fit in too well in New England and never truly felt like I was able to be myself.

I read one book a day as a teenager, most involving romantic stories that would often take place on seaside Cape Cod homes or beautiful Colonial homes on huge pieces of property.  Having grown up in Florida, in my mind, I thought those four seasons were going to be so incredible.  And romantic? How romantic and cool and life changing would it be to go work for a publishing company which was something I had always wanted to do?

So I got the four seasons, and I got the Colonial on 2.5 acres, I got the weekends in Hyannis and I got the job with the publishing company...but I would speak, and The South would tumble out.  People made fun of my accent (which is funny, because people here don't even think I have one!).  And a rare few liked to talk.  Of course, mind you, my definition of talk is sit down, tell me your life story, I will tell you mine, and you had better have a lot of time on your hands..... because I LOVE to talk! I wish I didn't have such a memory for bad things that have happened to me, but I can distinctly remember people trying to get away from me because they just didn't really know what to make of this person who shared her whole life and didn't really hold back too much.

I was also never a fan of beating around the bush.  Once we were having a miniature crisis up there and I just went to the person involved and said, "Hey, come on, this needs to be done and it needs to be done now."  To which another person in the room responded, "Your delivery is absolutely horrible, you could have found a much better way around that to get the results we needed."  I remember thinking, how else can we get results if we don't just tell the person outright what is needed? Going AROUND something to get what was needed never really seemed like a great idea to me when there was a straight path right in front of us waiting to be used!

And for a long time I thought my delivery WAS horrible and doubted my own way of doing things.

Then we came here.  After my first hour here, I sat on the porch with some new friends, watching our children play in the yard, and these folks were telling me about the area as we looked out over the mountains in the distance.  They were telling me exactly how things were and I recall sitting on that porch grinning thinking "This is how it is supposed to be! This is real."  And for the first time I knew that I hadn't been wrong all those years, I had just been me living in a place I wasn't supposed to be.

This week I had the wonderful opportunity of traveling to North Carolina to visit a lifelong best friend while she was at her vacation home there.  As I was driving, I was on the phone with another friend who lives out West.  I needed to switch lanes on the interstate.  The second I put my blinker on, the person in the fast lane slowed down so I could get over.  Man, I just LOVE that!  And it happens here ALL of the time. The person on the phone with me said, "Wow, I don't even put my signal on out here because when you do, people purposely speed up and will never let you in!"

As I left North Carolina, I had to stop to fill the car up with gas first.  I was in such a hurry to get back here and pick the kids up from their after school activities, but, as happens in the The South, an old timer stopped me before I could even get the nozzle in my gas tank.

"Let me ask ya somethin'.  I see you got a West Virginia license plate there, you from West Virginia?"

"Yes sir." I said with a smile, even though my heart was racing inside because I knew what would come next, this old timer wanted to talk and what should have been a five minute stop at the gas station turned into an additional fifteen minute conversation about WV coal mines and old West Virginia license plates! (I know nothing about either topic!) Though my mind was racing with the responsibility of having to get to my kids, I just couldn't let the old timer down, for what he represented was what I love so much about The South.  The South is inherently kind, naturally giving, and even with its imperfections, as real as real can get. (Even the cop who would, thirty minutes later, write out my speeding ticket for driving too fast while trying to make up the time I lost with the old timer, was the kindest cop I had ever met and gave me that ticket with an APOLOGY that he had to give it to me!  I told him it was ok, it really wasn't his fault I was speeding!) But you know what, that old timer NEEDED to talk, and I understand that need.  Stopping and listening to him was worth every penny I will pay for that speeding ticket! (and let me tell you, that is A LOT of pennies!!!).

I am well aware that many of you reading this are from or living in, New England. Please don't misunderstand.  I met some of the most wonderful people there who I still keep in contact with today.  But life is just so unbelievably different here. And this life isn't for everyone.  God made us all different and He made a place for each of us as well.

I was recently doing some research on California towns as our nephew is moving and I was looking into where he is going.  I came across a town in California (and I wish I could find it now, but I couldn't find it when I went to write this blog) that calls itself "The Kindest Town In CA".  The towns website goes on to describe how they make kindness a priority every day and teach the importance of kindness in their schools. I hate the thought that this whole idea of being real and kind doesn't just come naturally, as if the town has to make a point of doing it, but at the same time, I am thrilled that someone recognized the need for it enough to base an entire town around it! I am dying to visit this place to see how it stacks up with The South I have grown to love so much for just this reason.

So what if we all decided to make every area of the worlds we touch today kinder and more real?  If we wanted to live in the kindest, most real town in America, wouldn't it have to start with us? How can I do that?  How can you do that?  Let's listen today when someone talks to us, really listen, and talk back for as long as they want to talk!  Let's allow someone to pull into traffic even if we are in such a hurry we think it will make us late. Give someone your parking space instead of rushing into it yourself...I could go on and on..any act of kindness, any act of being the real genuine you that God made you to be is showing Him honor and giving Him the glory!

Let me know how it works out for ya!