One Balanced Life

There are places that reach in and wrap themselves around your heart. New Orleans is one of those places. I’ve lived down south and thought how different could Southern Louisiana really be. But it is. And New Orleans is city unlike any other. I fell in love with it - the colors, the architecture, the accents, the music, the energy, the food, the slow easy pace of life, but most of all the people. Take Granny, who has lived her whole life on the bayou and has never left the area, she was full of stories and an honesty that blew me away. And I could listen to the sound of her voice all day, completely mesmerized by it. When we met she looked into my eyes - gave me the sweetest compliment – and I promptly fell in love with her too. When we parted whispered in my ear “Remember what I said, remember who you are.”

At the airport, I was chatting with a friend and she asked, “Could you live there? If you could live anywhere where would you live?” My response was “I don’t know.” On the plane I thought of other places I’ve been fallen in love with and considered a life…a beach near Truro, the mountains of North Carolina, the North Shore of Kauaii, rural Vermont, the Oregon Coast, the woods of Northern MN…the list went on and on.

And then the answer to her question came to me. As I stepped off the plane I called her and said…

“I’ve got it. I just want to really live wherever I am.”