The past two weeks I have been doing clinical in the delta. The Rolling Fork area to be specific. I loved it. I loved working with kids in the schools there but I also just loved being in the delta. It has been a while since I have been "home". Just the feeling of riding through what most people would call nothing is soothing to me. I honestly had forgotten that Jackson is a big city. I'm literally never not surrounded by stuff....buildings, houses, hospitals, people, traffic, STUFF! I think the Dixie Chicks were on to something singing about Wide Open Spaces.*
I grew up in Greenwood, Mississippi. And I will argue with anyone that the Mississippi delta is the classiest place on earth. I'm a girl who loves tradition and the delta is full of that. ** Greenwood and the delta will always be my home. About a year and a half ago when my parents decided to move away from the delta I was anything but happy. Why would they ever want to leave the delta? Why would they want to leave the home my brother and I grew up in? Why would they want to leave Pillow Academy? Pillow is the school where both my parents worked while I was growing up. Pillow is a huge part of Greenwood and while growing up Pillow was our life. I'm fairly certain my brother and I never took a picture before the age of at least 10 without some kind of Pillow paraphernalia.*** We even named our favorite dog after the green and gold(en retriever) Mustangs. So the last thing I wanted was for my parents leave Pillow and Greenwood for MRA and Madison.
Fortunately, they made the move despite my protests. Yes, fortunately. My parents only thought they were moving for a job. Little did we know they were moving just twenty minutes from my house about two weeks before the most difficult year of my life took place. It's one of those times that you realize God is in complete control and that his time truly is perfect. I have no idea what would have happened over the past year and a half if they had not been close enough to drive to my house in the middle of the night. I can tell you that I know I would not be any where close to where I am today without them so close.
So now a year and a half after my parents became (sigh) Madisonites I could not be happier with their move. My mom and I were able to go shopping this afternoon and have dinner. On a Wednesday night! There is this parody of Taylor Swift's song I'm Feeling 22**** called I'm Feeling 32. It's hilarious. There is a line in the parody that says something like, "I think I'll call my mom. She's a really cool lady". It's pretty true of my incredibly blessed life as it is today.
By now I've almost gotten used to not going home to Greenwood. But I do fully intend to one day live in the Mississippi delta again. It's just home and as you all know "there is no place like home".
* And yes that probably dates me. My cousin asked me to go to a Hunter Hayes concert and I had to do a google search to find out who that was and if Hunter was a boy or girl. Yeah, you are only as old as you feel, right?
**It's full of some other things too but no need to discuss that.
****See, I'm hip.
***Proof there are no childhood pictures of us without the presence of PA:
That top picture of you is probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteYour vest is amazing. Also, that's how I feel about this past year in Baton Rouge. It was so hard moving near home for a year, working in a job that I loved, only to have to give that up and move back up north. I have often wondered why God had that as part of the plan...it just seemed to make things harder! But I know that I could not have handled being away from my family this past year...I needed them and they needed me! I love to see how God works out every little detail, including moves to Madison and Baton Rouge, for our good!
ReplyDeleteMarley and Mallory, I have always been incredibly stylish, as made obvious by these pictures. I also look exactly the same as I did 20 years ago. Thanks for reading and commenting!
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