Inspiration Thursday! Getting back to the heart... land.

I live in a city of beautiful people, surrounded by beautiful landmarks and some days my work includes creating "image" advertising. Surrounded by all this beauty, it's very easy to get caught up in what looks good - even if only on the surface - because image is important in the community I adopted 15 years ago. But last week I had the opportunity to visit my hometown and got a dose of a different kind of beauty.

My hometown is nestled in the mountains. It's a College (now University) town, cut by a river and crowned in the former glory of coal barons whose lives ended long before my family came to town. At first glance, the people seem weathered, old. The houses look much the same. Homesteads I remember having neatly clipped lawns, pristine paint jobs and overflowing flower beds are now in a bit of disarray. I can see that the economy has hit the place of my childhood hard. But that was looking with my "city" eyes.

It took me a couple days to slip back into the comfort of home - to stop being sad about what I was seeing as decay. I began to look at the faces around me and realize that instead of the perfection I've come to expect, I was seeing the faces of lives lived, hardships weathered, families built. Each line on each face is a mark of a battle raged and won. The houses that need a coat of paint still have good bones, are still markers of generations safely sheltered and new families begun. There have just been more urgent and important needs than a coat of paint.

I know that there in the "heartland" instead of throwing away that which is old, we treasure the history and the strength and wisdom that comes with age. This is a place where neighbors know each other, whose children run from one yard to another because there are multiple Mamas looking out for them. It's a place where when you get sick someone will bring you homemade granola (even if you're visiting the doctor), will offer to mow your lawn or will come over to check on you if they see an abnormal number of cars in your driveway.

And so, in a way, I remembered myself. I remembered what is important in the grander scale of life. I remembered the proud, strong spirit that fostered my youth and young adulthood. And when I returned to my adopted city, I carried that Mountaineer strength back where I resume my place among the beautiful ones. But I know inside there's another world where beauty has a different face, a giving heart and a quiet dignity that looks beyond the surface with discerning eyes - and that will live inside me no matter where I go.