I Love City Life

Not always, but today I do. There are days I'd love to not have a parking lot in front of my house with cars that have speakers blaring, a neighbor that starts his parties after the bars close and happen to stand between our houses where the noise echoes, and smoke coming into our windows from our other neighbor. Yes, aspects of city life really annoy me...but then there are the reasons I love the city.

Today I got my jogging stroller and my baby bj*orn and off the three of us went, for a long walk. We walked to church. It's a 2 mile walk one way, so perfect exercise, and Audrey walks majority of the trip. The best part is that we can walk one way to church and a totally different way back, but there's not just two ways to go, we could go a plethora of ways. I love to walk along and see all the variety of houses, decorations, retail shops, restaurants, and people that I pass along my way. I love having a reason to get out and walk, other than just for exercise. Today we walked to church, other days we walk to go to the park's playground, coffee shop, restaurant, market, grocery store, or the video store. All are reasons to not use gas, get some exercise, and breath fresh air. And along the way we may meet a friend or two.

Today on my walk home I began walking along with another mom of two young children. She had this really cool stroller (donations, anyone?), so the conversation began, but being Moms we already had much in common to talk about. We talked as we walked together for several blocks. She's new to the area and recently put her child in pre-school to meet new moms and for her son to meet friends. I was thankful God put me at that place and that moment. I don't know that I'll run into this mom again, but it certainly helped make my walk home faster and I hope it brightened her day as well.

On days like today, the parking lot doesn't bother me (no one is doing laundry today, so it's quiet) my neighbor doesn't have parties on weekdays, so I'm thankful there's space between our houses giving us a bit more land than a lot of city dwellers, and I'm thankful for the large city house windows even if I do have to close them occasionally for fear of 2nd hand smoke plus he's a wonderful neighbor. It's all in perspective, right? Hopefully I'll come back to this post when I'm not as excited about living in the city. For today, I love city life.