Love the One You're With...

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Ivan

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It's most likely that my wife and I will be moving about twenty minutes south into the State of Illinois in a number of weeks. I was born in Illinois, and then spent over three years in Ft. Worth, Texas, moved back to Illinois and and have lived the rest of my life (thus far!) in Wisconsin. I have lived in Wisconsin for almost nineteen years. At first I didn't care of it. Nothing in particular, really. However, overall a period of time I started to appreciate the character of the State, the people and the land. Now I don't want to move back to Illinois (but we will), even though Wisconsin is a mere twenty minutes away.

I thoroughly enjoyed my years in Texas. It certainly has a different 'feel' about it than any other place I have live. During my years in Illinois, I lived in the Metro-East area of the greater St. Louis. I love St. Louis. I have visited a number of places that I enjoyed, especially California (Redwoods!).

Now I stand at the door of another opportunity, another period of change and growth. And it's not just a phyical move to a new locale that I'm talking about. No, much more than that. Perhaps I'll share that another time.

Who else has fallen in love with a 'second' love, another place in which you didn't grow up, but now is a place you truly love?
 
Tim and I quickly grew to love the Upstate of South Carolina--for those unfamiliar with the phrase, it's the northwestern corner of SC, especially the Greenville area. We lived just west of Greenville while Tim attended Erskine, which is south of Greenville. We love the downtown area (very pedestrian-friendly), the access to beautiful parks, scenery and outdoor living, plus an abundance of conservatively minded folk. While we were there only three years, we still consider it our favorite place we've lived.
 
Tim and I quickly grew to love the Upstate of South Carolina--for those unfamiliar with the phrase, it's the northwestern corner of SC, especially the Greenville area.

People who live in Southern Illinois (not southern Illinois) are adamant about distinguishing themselves from 'other parts' of Illinois.
 
I've lived in a lot of places. Spent my early childhood up til the age of 13 in Oregon. Spent the better part of 20 years in California (northern). I lived a short while in the Twin Cities. Spent a few years in Texas... Dallas and then a little town west of Denton. Spent a little time in Montana. I've driven through every state west of the Mississippi except for the Dakotas. I've driven from Texas to Florida and on another trip to TN. I've driven a semi from WA to TX to TN and then to LA and then home. Home to me was pretty much split in my head. Corvallis Oregon will always hold a special place in my memory and Sonoma county in CA I lived all over in the years I spent there. To me, though, Washington state where I am now feels more like home to me. I can think of only one other place where I might just go to retire and that is the southern Oregon coast. It is really beautiful there and far from crowded, nor will ever be. There are two things I can't deal with, crowds and heat. Just north of where I live now, up in Kitsap county, is where I spent the first five years in this state and it is much more rural and nicer than it is down here in the Tacoma area.
 
I could retire on the farm I grew up on. My wife could not. On a little farm outside the Southern Illinois hamlet of New Douglas I spent the first twenty-one years of my life. It's a place I can go to and be immediately accepted by the people there. I will always be consider one of them.

My parents still live there. My father has lived on this farm since he was twelve years old. He will soon be eighty-five years old. My mother has lived on the same farm since the day she married my father. That's been for over fifty-nine years. The Schoen family has lived in the New Douglas area since the 1850's. We have roots there.

But this version of the Schoen family has put their roots down in Wisconsin soil. I suppose being twenty minutes away from Wisconsin (when we move to Poplar Grove, IL) isn't all that bad. We have two daughters who live in Wisconsin, one in Burlington and the other in the Milwaukee suburb of St. Francis. I didin't think much of Wisconsin when I first got here but I have learned to love it.
 
Grew up on the northwest side of Detroit and that was "home," even when we moved west in the area. Thought nowhere else could ever be home, but this lovely community on the Ann Arbor side of what is a functioning Gaza Strip between Detroit and its western suburbs is much more "home" now. It's the 20th safest community of over 75,000 in the country for 2009; so say FBI statistics. I like the location, just 52 miles due north of Dillard's across the state line in one of our *enemies*, Ohio. :duh: ;)

On the whole, though, I'd rather be in Houston. :lol:

My mother and her whole family were from southeast Wisconsin and I don't think she ever really let go of the place.

Margaret
 
Poplar Grove is a nice area, I'm sure you guys will enjoy it once you get settled!

Indeed it is. And it has the added attraction of being where God wants us to be. My wife is thinking that we'll live there until we reach retirement and then move back to Wisconsin. This is the girl that thought the Metro-East area of St. Louis was the ONLY place to live. Of course, the best place to be in under God's grace.
 
I used to live in Atlanta. It took a while to get used to seeing as I am from Scotland. Now I miss it so much. It feels like home and I long to be back in Atlanta or anywhere in the South, particularly Georgia.
Sorry Ivan, but St Louis as lovely as it is and as blessed as I am to be here, just doesn't feel like home.
 
I used to live in Atlanta. It took a while to get used to seeing as I am from Scotland. Now I miss it so much. It feels like home and I long to be back in Atlanta or anywhere in the South, particularly Georgia.
Sorry Ivan, but St Louis as lovely as it is and as blessed as I am to be here, just doesn't feel like home.

Sorry to hear that, Donnie. Of course, I have lived in St. Louis all my life, so I guess I wouldn't understand.
 
Sorry Ivan, but St Louis as lovely as it is and as blessed as I am to be here, just doesn't feel like home.

No need to be sorry, Donnie. Home is where the heart is. God bless Atlanta.


Sorry to hear that, Donnie. Of course, I have lived in St. Louis all my life, so I guess I wouldn't understand.

Sarah, how is our fair city these days? I was in the area last month for my nephew's wedding and I'll be back in August for a Brewers-Cardinals game. Really looking forward to that. Primo seats above the Cards dugout. Prior to the game we'll be on the field and in the dugout. Hope to meet and greet with some of the Cardinals. Get some pics too.
 
I've lived in a lot of places. Spent my early childhood up til the age of 13 in Oregon. Spent the better part of 20 years in California (northern). I lived a short while in the Twin Cities. Spent a few years in Texas... Dallas and then a little town west of Denton. To me, though, Washington state where I am now feels more like home to me.

Rick, I have lived a lot of the same places you have. I also grew up in Portland, Oregon and moved to northern California with my parents at the age of 13. Have lived for two years in the Twin Cities and also in Dallas as you have.

I guess we bloom where we are planted. We now live in the country between Orlando and Tampa. I love hearing roosters in the morning and seeing the cows in the pasture next door. I love meeting my neighbors including the 75 year old goat farmer in my neighborhood. I love the quaint shops in downtown Plant City.

Pastor Ivan, the older I get I realize that my real homesickness is for heaven. That will be the best place to live!
 
I have lived my whole life in VA. I spent 24 years in my hometown in King George County, the eastern side of VA. We moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 1994 and it was a huge adjustment. I knew everyone in my town and they knew me. My grandmother was raised there, her parents lived all their lives there, etc.

We've been in Winchester for 16 years now and I love it. Our city is small, but very beautiful.

The only thing I think I really miss is the blue crabs we used to get. I haven't had any in about 12 years and that just isn't right!
 
I managed a 50,000 acre ranch in South Africa. I have always wanted to farm. When I farm I feel I'm doing what I was called to do. But to own your own farm you need to inherit one or be really wealthy, and humanly speaking I'll never own a farm. So I treat it as an idol and try not to think about it. Which is, of course, one meaning of the title of the OP. Love the place you're at. The other meaning is denying what you want for the person you're with, and you mentioned that as well. In either case, I guess the idea is that we're just travelling through so don't get too attached.
 
Sorry to hear that, Donnie. Of course, I have lived in St. Louis all my life, so I guess I wouldn't understand.


Didn't mean to offend. It's not St Louis' fault. I know many folks who just love St Louis and are delighted to be living here.
I just grew attached to the South and Atlanta in particular.
 
I have lived in Pittsburgh for 6 years now (and if I live here for a couple of more years it will be the longest I have ever lived in one place in my entire life) and have really come to love Pittsburgh and actually almost feel like I am "home" here. I lived in D.C. for three years and while nice I always felt out of place there.

Though West Virginia will always be home in a way no place outside of Heaven will be for me.
 
I managed a 50,000 acre ranch in South Africa. I have always wanted to farm. When I farm I feel I'm doing what I was called to do. But to own your own farm you need to inherit one or be really wealthy, and humanly speaking I'll never own a farm. So I treat it as an idol and try not to think about it. Which is, of course, one meaning of the title of the OP. Love the place you're at. The other meaning is denying what you want for the person you're with, and you mentioned that as well. In either case, I guess the idea is that we're just travelling through so don't get too attached.

Tim, we are a lot alike. I grew up on a ranch in Montana, moderate size of 1200 acres, but I couldn't keep it with the tax structure and costs of the era. I rented farmland and kept food on the table, but it was always barely getting by.

I managed a large irrigated dairy farm in Iraq. I loved the area--I was drawing irrigation water from the Euphrates river, I would have picnics in the shade of date palms, hang out with Bedouins and listen to them tell stories in Arabic. Their style of narrative was right out of Genesis. And I visited the beautiful Marshlands just south of Abraham's birthplace--I got a glimpse of what Eden may have been like: the temperature was always 75-90 degrees, everything grew, abundant water, and unspoiled villages composed of sophisticated houses built of reeds. People traveled by foot, boat, or camel. It was tremendously romantic, and I was sorely tempted to find a way to stay.

I could grow 120 bushel per acre wheat, dates, all sorts of delightful vegetables--a farmer's paradise. But I couldn't tolerate the pervasive presence of the Dictator and came back home.

I've now been in the Puget Sound area for 17 years. We have a greenhouse and a quarter acre and my farming is more along the lines of horticulture. Traffic is bad, I yearn for wide space, but I love the inland sea and the tall mountains nearby.
 
Pastor Ivan, the older I get I realize that my real homesickness is for heaven. That will be the best place to live!

Indeed! We can conceive of the most perfect, the most beautiful place on this earth with every day there better than the last and it will not be one-millionth the place a corner of heaven will be.
 
I've lived most of my life in Texas, the surrounding Houston area and consider it home. My parents moved to Washington D.C. during WW2 and I really loved it there, loved the snow and the historic sites. I also came to love CA, the area around Pacific Grove and Carmel while my son lived there. He moved back here so I've no need to go there now and miss that. They lived 3 blocks from the ocean and I would walk there and watch the seals and otters. So very different from Texas!! I've always loved the place where I happened to be!
 
I couldn't agree more with those of you say heaven is home. The longer I live, the more I long for heaven.

Having said that I yearn for the people of northern Illinois which was my first home. I don't care much for the urban sprawl or the city traffice, but I understand the people.

I love the rural part of Upstate of South Carolina where I live now which is my real second home, but my other second home is rural France where I lived for a few years. Le Chambon sur Lignon is one of the most magical places I've lived. It's at a high altitude (cold most of the year) on a plateau with ancient volcanic peaks that cover the landscape. The sunrises and sunsets are some of the most amazing I've seen in my life. The summers our cool and pleasant. The people seem to come from another century. It's the land of the Huguenots who remained in France after the great persecutions. I miss it.
 
Well, Ivan. I have indeed fallen in love with the St.Louis Metro East as my second hometown. I grew up in northwest IN. My husband is from GA. We have lived most of our married life overseas. We spent four of those years at Scott AFB. After leaving for adventures elsewhere, we heard the retirement bells ringing. We chose, on purpose, to retire in Mascoutah, IL. Niether one of us has a desire to return to our hometown. We are transplants.
 
Well, Ivan. I have indeed fallen in love with the St.Louis Metro East as my second hometown. I grew up in northwest IN. My husband is from GA. We have lived most of our married life overseas. We spent four of those years at Scott AFB. After leaving for adventures elsewhere, we heard the retirement bells ringing. We chose, on purpose, to retire in Mascoutah, IL. Niether one of us has a desire to return to our hometown. We are transplants.

Mascoutah is a wonderful place to live.
 
I grew up in Carbondale, down in Southern Illinois. When I left to go to Northfield, MN for college, it was a struggle. I had an accent and thought people were remote and unfriendly. However I married a man from Minnesota and we started our family in a suburb of Minneapolis. When we moved to western Wisconsin, it was a wrench for us all even though were are pretty much on the WI/MN border.(My husband is still a Twins/Vikings fan.) The politics up here drives me bats, but in 25 years I've turned into a Winnesotan. To hear me talk, you'd think I never lived south of Beloit!!

Hey, I'm going to a Cards game in St. Louis in July. They're playing the Brewers and I just realized I have a slight inclination to buy and wear a Brewers shirt for the game. Hmm.
 
I've lived in a lot of places. Spent my early childhood up til the age of 13 in Oregon. Spent the better part of 20 years in California (northern). I lived a short while in the Twin Cities. Spent a few years in Texas... Dallas and then a little town west of Denton. Spent a little time in Montana. I've driven through every state west of the Mississippi except for the Dakotas. I've driven from Texas to Florida and on another trip to TN. I've driven a semi from WA to TX to TN and then to LA and then home. Home to me was pretty much split in my head. Corvallis Oregon will always hold a special place in my memory and Sonoma county in CA I lived all over in the years I spent there. To me, though, Washington state where I am now feels more like home to me. I can think of only one other place where I might just go to retire and that is the southern Oregon coast. It is really beautiful there and far from crowded, nor will ever be. There are two things I can't deal with, crowds and heat. Just north of where I live now, up in Kitsap county, is where I spent the first five years in this state and it is much more rural and nicer than it is down here in the Tacoma area.

I am a Kitsap County boy... :) Born and raised in East Bremerton... :)
 
I have always felt like the Psalmist, "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me." Ps 16.6

Having been born and bred in Edinburgh I always considered it a privilege coming from such a beautiful city steeped in history significant in both the secular and the spiritual realm. I also spent 3 years in the Highlands which was in a most beautiful area.

After marrying we lived in the Irish Republic and again I felt we were in a pleasant laid back easy going culture in an area of great beauty.

In the mid 90s we had the opportunity of returning to Edinburgh or moving to Northern Ireland. As we investigated opportunities in Edinburgh I really thought no, its far better to bring children up in Ireland than Edinburgh. That decision was made even although "the troubles" had not yet ended. Have never regretted it, for all its problems, Ireland is still a great place to live in. However having said all that as long as your wife and family are with you, then it doesn't really matter where you live.
 
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