Love Where you Live

Lately, our community has been embracing a simple message: Love Where You Live.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how much I believe in those four words.

I’ve never really understood why people spend so much time criticizing the town they live in. I understand that not everyone chose to be where they are. Maybe you’re here because of a job, because family is nearby, or because life simply brought you here. But if this is where you are, why not choose to look for the good?

Every town has problems. Every community has things that need improvement. But constantly complaining about where you live doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t encourage others to visit, invest, or put down roots. Most importantly, it doesn’t do much for your own outlook on life.

What if, instead of focusing on what’s wrong, we focused on what could be better? What if we joined an organization, volunteered for a committee, supported a local business, attended a community meeting, or started something ourselves? If there’s something you don’t like about your town, there are often opportunities to help change it.

My husband and I chose to live here. We truly did. When we were talking about where we wanted to raise our family, we knew North Iowa was the right choice. And as the years went on and our family grew, and we had chances and opportunities to move – we dind’t. We stayed here. We call ourselves MC “lifers’. We recognize there are things that can be improved, which is exactly why we spend time working on those things rather than simply complaining about them.

Our children grew up hearing us speak positively about our community. They saw us get involved. They watched us invest our time and energy into making our town a better place. Two of our children moved after college, experienced life in another state, and eventually came back home. In many ways, they always knew they would. They love North Iowa, and I believe part of that comes from growing up in a family that genuinely loved where they lived.

Choosing to love your town doesn’t mean pretending it’s perfect. It means recognizing its flaws while still seeing its value. It means appreciating what makes it special while working to improve what isn’t.

You’re here, right?

So why not choose to find the good? Why not be part of the solution? Why not help make the things that need to be better, better?

Maybe that’s what “Love Where You Live” really means.