AN ODE INDIANA
It's always been a dream of ours to move to Arizona. My husband held tightly to that dream for much longer than me because, well, I began to notice things. Like how wonderful Indiana truly is. We have our challenges: the skies are gray in the winter. We get snow and ice. We grow corn and soybeans around here so there are none of our beloved mountains. We don't have the stark beauty of the desert. We've now adopted daylight saving time which would have been the best reason to move!

But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The changing of the leaves in October is glorious against the brilliant blue of the sky. Our summers are pretty and we get soft green grass and flowers popping up everywhere. The cost of living is low. But the main advantage is the people. I realized how much I would miss the midwest friendliness. In big cities like Phoenix, there are so many people and so many new people moving in that the residents are too wary or too busy to easily make friends. Here in Indiana, we can still write checks many places. I talk to my mailman most mornings (his name is Bryan and he's wonderful) and we chat with people in the grocery store. On our way down to Nashville the other day, we noticed a woman and her teenage daughter struggling to get open the oil cap on their car. My husband immediately stopped to help. That's the midwest mindset. Our daughter carried her upbringing with her to Phoenix, and I think that's why her shop, See Spot Clean, is doing so well. People love her because she's warm and genuine. That's how Hoosiers are. So we've decided we won't make a permanent move to Arizona. We will look for a house to buy there and fix up that we can live in for a few months in the winter but we'll keep a home here too. Where are feet are planted in black Indiana dirt. This decision has nothing to do with our granddaughter. ;-) Okay, maybe a little. Okay, maybe a lot. But all these other reasons are icing on the cake!

How about you? Is there something you love about your home state? Or is there a place you'd love to live? I posted another picture of the girls together. Three of us are Hoosiers. Isn't that amazing?

Labels: Best Books of Indiana, Hoosiers