Citified and Countrified

Watching the morning stream of news, CBS has a program called “Uplift.” It has the purpose of sharing some good news to refresh both news anchors and their listeners. It is refreshing.

This morning they had a repeat story of the mother daughter team who hiked te Appalachian Trail to raise money for a charity. The most refreshing aspect to them was all the hospitality they encountered along the trail, staying in some 35 different homes.

Two things: First, I assume those folks who hosted them were mostly countrified and had so different an environment to live in as opposed to citified people. If you haven’t been out in the country lately, quick, go and refresh yourself in the welcoming arms of Mother Nature. Patty and I have a 634 acre State Park right next to the mighty Niagara River with paths and a half mile Boardwalk overlooking a beach. It’s about a five minute drive, and in my younger years we could walk it or bike it there. “Closed” in the winter, but the employees keep the entrance roads plowed, and the State allows people in to walk around.

I hope you have some kind of natural oasis near you. Many towns and cities have parks and nature walks citizens can use. The gifts of nature will benefit heart , mind, and soul.

Second thing, we cannot plug our ears and cover our eyes to the neverending shifting sands of Mankind’s Unnatural Deserts. Cities and their cramped apartments and streets can also cramp the soul and never let it breathe. There are definitely different cities and different vibes, but people have to look for them on the peripherals. They are not always immersed in them. They have to be sought out. Areas of most cities are much darker, and how can anyone thrive in them? Nevertheless, we may have no choice where we are born, but we have a choice how we live and whether to stay or to go. The place we choose to stay just might be beyond the physical and rather, bebe a choice of attitude, a choice to make the best of it, wherever we are.

Nor having lived in a big city, I imagine choosing to be friendly and surrounding yourself with people and their friendly natures would do quite nicely.

Like I keep repeating: It’s always a choice. Feeling trapped? It’s still a choice. Feeling paralyzed? Again, choice.

Choose to go with Jesus as He always helps making the choices easier and healthier.