Possible Answer #2: It’s time to slow down.
I have never been good at sitting still. Never.
I was really an excellent student and quite compliant all through
school, but I still managed to get myself in trouble pretty regularly. (I’m certain that if I was in school in
today’s world, they would have wanted to medicate me despite my flawless
grades.) Nearly every report card I ever
received includes a note or comment to my parents: “Your daughter is a very
bright young lady and a joy to have in class, but she talks way too much!” I did my work quickly and well, and when I
was finished I needed something else to do (reference previous comment about
not being able to sit still). Thus, I
would fidget or strike up a conversation with my neighbor. My teachers did not appreciate that. (What I never understood was that, as
punishment, they would send me to sit out in the hall so that I would no longer
have anyone with whom to talk. They failed
to consider that every other teacher who had a chatty student did the same, so
we would all just sit out in the hall to talk instead.)
In high school, I
took mostly Honors/AP level courses, worked 20+ hours a week, volunteered at
church and kept a pretty busy social life.
College went pretty much the same way.
I carried 15+ hours most of the time and filled the rest of my schedule
with rehearsals, student organizations, social activities, work, etc. Then, I graduated and worked full time and
volunteered. Even when I stayed home
with my kids when they were babies and toddlers, I filled my schedule leading
Bible studies and playgroups and more volunteering. It was volunteering that got me back into the
work place. I volunteered so much at my
son’s school that they asked me to apply for a job. That job was fun, intense and very busy, and
I absolutely loved it. I also loved that
it was flexible enough to work only minimally in the summer. However, I, of course, managed to fill my
summers by being the swim team mom among other things.
See. I don’t know how
to sit still. Everything I do, I do
completely. I don’t know how to do
things halfway. I love to help people
with their work and I love to do all of my work well. That gets exhausting after a while. For everyone.
I didn’t even mention that my husband has also run his own business for
the past 10+ years. Anyone who is or has
ever been self-employed knows that you never get to slow down in that kind of
position. Between my full-time job, his
self-employment, three growing kids, church, friends, numerous volunteer
activities, the kids’ schoolwork and extracurricular activities, and the fact
that in an urban/suburban environment there’s ALWAYS something to do, we’ve
been going non-stop for years now. 9
acres is a lot of work, but country/small-town life is just a slower pace. Maybe it’s time for our family to give that a
try.
Possible Answer #3: It all started with free tickets.
So, put aside the family heritage and the I-love-history
thing. Forget the slower pace. Maybe it all started with free tickets. Seriously.
One day while sitting at my computer while my students were taking a
test, an email came through via a church forum.
Somebody had tickets to see Brad Paisley that night at the Rodeo. My neighboring teacher, also one of my
dearest friends, suggested that my husband and I take the tickets and he (my
friend) and his wife would watch our kids so we could have a night out. Long story short, we got a high school
student to babysit and the four of us went out together. How does this have anything at all to do with
selling my lovely suburban home and moving to the country, you ask? Well, here it is:
When I first met my husband, I was thrilled to see that his
CD collection was almost identical to mine.
Our musical interests ran the gamut from blues to classic rock to
classical to Broadway. There was an
obvious absence of country music in both of our collections. Regardless of what he might tell you now, he
didn’t like it. He could tolerate it but
got no enjoyment from it. I grew up on a
wide assortment of musical genres, from Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to Kenny
Rogers and anything ever played at Gilley’s to mariachi music, the Beatles, Led
Zeplin, Lighting Hopkins, Carlos Santana, Elvis and everything in between. I grew up spending nearly every birthday at
the Rodeo, so country music was in my wheelhouse but it didn’t dominate my
iTunes account the way Elvis and U2 did (and still do). It was really more of a seasonal or social
interest though and not one I pushed since he really had no interest. Brad Paisley changed all that.
We went to the concert that night, and my husband, a lover
of fabulous guitar music and a guitarist himself, discovered that Brad Paisley
was not just any country singer, but, as the inebriated gentleman next to us
proclaimed throughout the night, he could really play the *!@% out of that
guitar! Never mind his incredibly clever
and charming lyrics. The next day, our
joint iTunes account grew to include a number of country songs. Over time, he started tuning in to the local
country stations in his truck and discovered the wholesome charm found in the
songs that told a story, the songs about trucks and tractors, and even in the
homages to beer. Because of that one
night and those free tickets, he began to explore the culture of country music
and realized that it really is as much a culture as is being Southern or being
Texan. It’s about hard-working men who
love their wives and children and mommas—men who go to church, love America and
drink beer, men who drive trucks and want to instill good strong values in
their children. He found a musical genre
that fit him and a culture that appealed to him, and over a little more time, our
iTunes account has grown to include scores of country songs and that musical
influence has been part of what has led us to where we are now.
Now, I’m not saying we are moving to the country because of
country music, but let’s face it, what we listen to does influence our
actions. Just look at the world around
us proclaiming that “it’s just music” but denying that the stories of sex,
drugs and violence that we see every day are completely unrelated yet
shockingly similar to popular music. In
country music, there is a wholesomeness (not in all of it, mind you—there’s
plenty of trash out there too—ALL things need moderation and discernment and a
healthy dose of parental discretion).
There’s talk of a slower pace and enjoying family. And that’s what we are getting with our move
to 9 acres.
