Don't leave

I bought these at the farmer's market yesterday and as I unpacked them I just thought how beautiful to live in such a fruitful region with such produce.

And it is a funny thing now standing here saying, I love this place. I love this area, I love everything about it. The small town, knowing people, the rural area.

I live in the most southern part of Germany. It doesn't get any more south than this and no it is not Bavaria, but right at the border to France and Switzerland.

When I graduated from High School I was so set on moving away attending university somewhere else, a big city. The only places I applied were at least 200 to 300 kilometers away from home. But nothing worked out. Until the very end. I had applied for a university in Stuttgart but the company I applied for only agreed to accept me by choosing a university in my own town. Divine humor? I believe so. So there I was having to make this decision. This decision that seemed so not what I had wanted but as I prayed and asked God it was exactly what He wanted for my life although I didn't understand it at that time.

So I did. I studied in my town. My small town with a population of only 48.000. And I was ok. The first semester I spent in Colmar, a small French town I absolutely love but from there it meant living here and not only that but working for a regional development company.

Could it get any more obvious? Stay! Don't leave! Love this place! And so I started falling in love with this region. Falling in love with the lush greens, the summer months, the southern feel, the Black Forest, the hills and mountains and rivers and the way of life. Even the dialect spoken here.

And not only that. My responsibilities in church grew. There was a reason for my having to stay here. I was needed and this feeling of being needed of having a cause to run for made we want to stay even more.

At the eve of my graduation from university I didn't want to leave this place. I wanted to stay. And once again I was offered to stay, to keep working for the region. I gladly accepted.

And now a couple of years later I can still say I love my town. I love walking downtown and not being a stranger. Living an exposed life without namelessness. I love meeting people downtown and have restaurant owners know my name.

My life is transparent and I love it that way!

My heart says, yes I will stay because apparently God has different, bigger plans for my life here. Plans I cannot even imagine. But one thing I know: he wants me to also be fruitful in this region and produce good things.

xoxo

Ramona