It's Your Time To Sparkle

During my lifetime, I have lived in large towns and medium-sized towns. I now live in the mountains of  North Carolina in a community made up of several small towns. The convenience offered by large towns is you can find any item you need within a one mile radius. The largest inconvenience is the getting around in that one mile radius.

Our community is one where people know lots of other people and their relatives. For the most part, visitors and transplants are welcome. I say the most part, because some newbies are always talking about how great it is in (where ever they came from) and want to change the area to be just like it, rather than to enjoy the uniqueness of our mountains and the people of our community.

We are surrounded by nature. When you wake in the mornings, you hear birds singing, you can see squirrels and rabbits gathering their food. As you drive thru the area, or stop to take a hike, you might encounter other wildlife like fox, turkeys, groundhogs, and an occasional black bear. To me, there is nothing greater than watching God’s creatures in their natural habitat.

We are also surrounded by people who interact with others. As you drive down a two lane road and pass another vehicle, you will receive a single finger recognition, known as the farmer wave. This is the raising of the pointer finger from the steering wheel as you pass another vehicle. I do not want to leave out the big cities in this section, they also used a similar form of recognizing a passing car, and it was with a single finger as well. However, the finger of choice for the bigger cities was the middle finger, and not normally used to encourage a friendly interaction.

While helping a friend this week, I was reminded of the community feel we have in our area. Some businesses close their offices or shops for lunch or for a family emergency. Others, actually close while on vacation, or for the winter months. A friend and her family had the opportunity to attend an out-of-town wedding, but because they owned a family business, they were challenged as to close the doors for a few days, resulting in the employees days off with or without pay, or for some of them to miss the wedding. This owner placed her faith in two mutual friends to run the office while she was gone.  We received a crash course in office procedures and four generations were able to get away for a great vacation.

While the two of us knew the basics, there were lots of things we did not know. The four mechanics tolerated our lack of mechanical knowledge and all the questions we had; the customers understood our lack of procedural knowledge and even helped us when we ran up against something we were not familiar with,

and everything  went well.  The trust the owner placed in us was rare. We had total access to her business after a very short training period. This business is her lively hood and she trusted us to care for it while she was gone. We were honored to help.

Because this area is small, people are open to meeting new people and making friends, easily. They trust their neighbors until given a reason not to. They show respect to others, as long as the respect is returned. They watch out for each other and are always willing to lend a helping hand. So grateful to have relocated to this fine area.