Growth

It seems to be that at least 50% of the days in May have brought rain. I thought the song went "April Showers bring May flowers." Apparently Utah doesn't espouse to such adages.

While this one to one ratio is great for the life recently planted in the soil, it sure makes it tough to take a walk without getting wet. I love springtime, I love to walk by houses and look at how they have landscaped. I like to see the reflection of personalities in what flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees people like to adorn their home with. I love that people take great pride in their homes.

I lived in NYC for 3 years where one was lucky to claim a step of a concrete sidewalk their backyard in the urban dwellings. Oh how different it is here. There a 400 square foot studio apartment for one was a haven of spaciousness. Here a home under 1000 square feet seems like a meager living. In NYC no need or space for a car, here it seems each house needs at least 3. A big family in NYC is a couple of two, here it is ten. There the outdoors consisted of a run in central park and trip to Union Square Market, here it is planting your own garden. In NYC we walked outside rain, sun, snow, cold, hot, because if you don't you can't get anywhere, here we walk when its sunny and warm but not too hot. There the kids played on the stoop and the sidewalk, here they play in their backyard. In NYC the opportunity to grow came in a bonsai tree kit from Urban Outfitters planting in my refrigerator, here it is in the open sunlight of organic matter, real sunlight, and real rain.

Oh how my life has changed over the past 2 years. I have gone from urban dweller in its surprisingly simplicity with little space and little room to grow, to the expansive burbs' of Bountiful Utah. Every day I am still amazed at how much space there is here, how much convenience, how much ease in daily living.

At times I miss the city of NYC, even in the tiring nature of carrying a bag of groceries on your back, and walking everywhere you need to go. Yet I realize that in my small home there, as wonderful as it was, I didn't have an essential ingredient nor the space to grow. Now with my husband, we can plant and grow.