In My Little Town. . .

201 West LeClaire Road, Eldridge, Iowa--my house

Lori, Stacey, Casey and me

My backyard without the garden, gazebo and iron swing-set

. . . I grew up belieiving
God keeps his eye. . . on us all.

If you know me at all you probably know that I think that places are sacred.  Our stories are sacred.  This weekend the gals from Edward White Elementary revisited our stories and our places.  The four of us met at my mom's for the weekend and journeyed back in time to our home town. We had the absolute best time. A sacred time.

Let's talk about the places. If it was brick it survived. If it was wood it didn't fair so well the last twenty-five years. Our houses were rotting. Casey's house foreclosed upon and left with garbage in the the yard and as we peeked in the window--the house was trashed. Her fancy house.

Nary a garage door was left hanging properly on it's hinge. It didn't help that Iowa is having the worst drought. Ever. The grass was all dead. No one wants to fix up a house on a street. They build in the new developments on the edge of town.

It made me a little sad. But we didn't come there to instigate urban renewal projects. We came to relive and update our stories. Here is a short list of the events in the lives of four small town Iowa girls over the last twenty-five years:

one of us ran for Miss Iowa
one of us prosecuted capital murder cases
three of us have two children between 6 and 12
two of us teach piano and play music in our church
one of us made a living in a country band for five years
one of us raises chickens and goats (well. . . used to raise goats)
two of us survived domestic violence
two of our dads died too young from cancer
one of us home schools her children
two of us shared a boyfriend  (bless his heart. . . )
two of our dads suffered from mental illness
one of us got up early Saturday morning and ran the seven mile BIX race in Davenport
three of us slept in. . .
four of us are married and staying married

You can imagine there was a lot of laughing and crying.  I thought about how I would have done things differently. Mostly in high school. Relationships I should have chosen differently. But of all the infinite number of paths we all could have taken the choices that we made led us right to this moment and to this weekend. You can't unweave the tapestry. None of us would change where we are right now. God blessed the broken road. . . that led me straight to you.

There's just something about someone who knows your story. Thanks gals! This weekend was a total blessing to me. You are amazing women and I love you all dearly.