Blessed to Live in a County that Sleeps

There is just something about our small towns in Arkansas County that are what keep us here and oftentimes we take the smallest things for granted. Over the past couple months, people have traveled to their vacation destinations and enjoyed some “down-time” from their normal hustle and bustle. Whether it is working their 9-5 jobs, daylight to dark jobs, attending sports events for their children, or whatever else they have had keeping them busy, getting away from it all seems to be one of the one thing many look forward to over the summer months.

We all like a vacation. Some even enjoy working vacations. Whatever the reason for leaving our small towns like DeWitt, Stuttgart, Gillett, Almyra, and all others, a “get-a-way" is nice. Well, for some that is.

Over the past week I spent the week in Pittsburgh, PA. Flying out of Little Rock, I was already homesick within minutes of being in the air and I definitely was NOT looking forward to flying into the Atlanta airport for a 3 ½ hour layover until our connecting flight into Pittsburgh. I made the best of it though because I was on a work trip. How people fly from city to city for work and enjoy it, I’ll never know. Sure, there are times you have plenty of down time to see the sights around the city, but when there isn’t any considerable amount of that time, and you’re stuck in a hotel between meetings, you really start to reflect on how blessed we are with what we have.

Six days of PA, 9 hour training days, walking three to five miles per day, scheduling Ubers, and being away from my family was more than I cared for this time. I did learn a LOT, but it wasn’t all work related. I learned so much more.

I learned that I take for granted so many small things. The butterfly’s that flutter around the flowers. The birds that start the day off with their songs. The bees that pollinate the plants. The pleasant greetings you receive from the community. The stillness of the night air (aside from the mosquitos). Seeing the stars twinkling in the night sky. Watching the sun rise and set across the prairie. Grass. Dirt. Gravel. The list goes on.

The weather was pleasant in Pittsburgh so I took advantage of it and sat outside for a bit each day to relax from the mentally draining day’s events. I was shocked at how noisy it was and how little movement there was from butterflies, birds, etc. The big city streets were constantly busy with buses running their routes, taxis and Ubers dropping people off at the hotel, sirens wailing, and aircraft flying in the air. It was loud all of the time. There was one night that I just couldn’t unwind so I went downstairs and outside to the sitting area and it was just as loud then as it was during the busy hours of the day.

The city doesn’t sleep. It was a good reminder that we are blessed to live in our small communities. Sure, we have issues in them, but that’s everywhere. I think we do have an advantage over the bigger cities though. We have the community members who are willing to make a difference. You see them out and about during all the yearly events. We live in a place where everyone knows everyone and we welcome all. The city isn’t like that! People weren’t the most pleasant and they were honestly too busy getting from one place to another to stop and say hello.

Aside from the college area that we were at, Carnegie Mellon, people didn’t even look at you. They were too busy looking at their devices to make sure their Uber or bus was on its way, working on their laptops, or just going with the flow. Observing all of that made me count my blessings that here, in our county, we notice people. We welcome people and we help others. We say hi. We wave. We smile. We are courteous. We are friendly.

I’d like to encourage you to spread that kindness and love everywhere you go. Be more outgoing with people and appreciate even the smallest of things that we are blessed daily with in our small county. From the birds and bees, butterflies and mosquitos, to the dirt roads and grass, be grateful that we have a city that does sleep. Instead of fussing when a store or business isn’t open on a Sunday, use that day to sit back and enjoy the small things. Life is so much better here than anywhere else!