Sowing friendships

 The job in Houston was simply too good an opportunity for my husband to pass up. So once again we packed our boxes, loaded the moving van, and transported all of our worldly goods, our daughters and the family beagle across a thousand miles. It was a logistically daunting journey. Yet after all the boxes were unpacked, the real adventure began. How do you reestablish your community? Where do you find friends, a church, or even a good grocery store? It's like a foreign place and you feel you're the outsider. I should be used to this by now. Before Texas, there was Ohio. Before Ohio, Indiana. Before Indiana, Iowa and at the very, very beginning Illinois. I blazed a trail across most of the Midwest.

In all of these places I cemented friendships, plugged into a church and generally thrived. And here I am in Texas trying to do it all over again. It's difficult work, this restarting a life in another place. I suppose that I could have stayed in Illinois, close to the tiny town where my life started. My father did. He worked at the local mine for over 30 years and then retired. I think my father's generation could expect a job that lasted decades in their local community. His generation could expect a pension and Sunday afternoons spent visiting the folks. Mine can't. We roam to find the best opportunities. Employers are much more fickle and don't shell out the generous pensions of yesteryear. We roam and sow relationships in all the communities where we settle. It's a lifestyle that forces you to be much more proactive in forging new friendships. When you have a group of friends that you've worked to cultivate, you're much less likely to take them for granted. And that's good for everybody.