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We made the choice to move from Arizona to Iowa for many reasons.  The choice to come back was made perhaps for even more reasons.

When we left for Iowa in 2005, I was sick of the desert, the lack of seasons, the 'brown'.

We returned home in 2011 and it's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.  Driving over the border from Colorado and into Arizona, the scenery was flat, brown and sandy but my heart swelled with joy and we are blessed to be living in a house near the neighborhood I grew up in where there are more mature trees than the newer developments in Arizona.

But even the expanse of desert no longer bothers my aesthetic senses.  In fact, up in north Scottsdale, one early morning, the sun still not shining her fullest, I felt the desert quite beautiful and peaceful. This appreciation has grown within me.

Perhaps because Iowa was my metaphorical desert, the true desert I grew up in now appears as an oasis. It's funny what the mind can do.  Iowa had some simple beauty but my heart belongs to Arizona.  I'm a desert girl who needs the sun over snow, city lights rather than corn fields and I'll take our citrus and palm trees even over the majestic oak if it means warmth instead of cold.

You actually can go home.



Image courtesy of usborderfirereport.com