A friend has a house in Grand Bend, on Lake Huron. When a tornado came through a while ago, her house sustained a lot of damage, and she lost 40 trees on her property. These were over a hundred years old, tall oaks and pines, and she said the entire landscape and feel of the place has changed.
I write a lot about finding the perfect place to live, looking at real estate, daydreaming about living life somewhere else. But it doesn't hurt to stop and remember once in a while -- you may find the perfect landscape, but landscapes change. Earth doesn't stay the same forever. You can't depend on externalities. Life is about growth and loss and change and adaptation. So instead of trying to find the best place to live, it makes much more sense to take the place you live in and make it the best you can. As was said in Conference last week, you don't need new landscapes, you need different eyes. Be open to the beauty where you are. Place after place is the right place.
I may not have the best view when I look out the windows of my house. There's no lake, no grove of trees, no mountain or meadow. But when I look inward, when I think of the people in my home, the purpose of my home, I can see that the inner landscape suits me just fine.
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