[Vision2020] ten years ago today

Wed Feb 22 20:14:55 PST 2012

Damn right!!!  :)

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com

CC: kjajmix1 at msn.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
From: thansen at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] ten years ago today
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:45:16 -0800
To: london at moscow.com

Keely may not have been born in Moscow, but she got here as fast as she could.

Seeya later, Moscow.
Tom HansenPost Falls, Idaho
"If not us, who?If not now, when?"
- Unknown

On Feb 22, 2012, at 11:11, "Bill London" <london at moscow.com> wrote:

K-
my prose is not as profound or articulate as yours, but I want you to know 
that I am very glad you came home ten years ago.
You certainly are brightening this community forum.
BL

From: keely emerinemix 
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:44 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
Subject: [Vision2020] ten years ago today

Good morning, Visionaires,

It was February 22, 2002, that 
the boys and I, fueled by a stop at Starbucks and Krispy Kreme in Issaquah, 
Washington, hit I-90 east with a truck full of our stuff and, stomachs churning 
and tears yet to dry on adolescent and third-grade cheeks, said goodbye to 
family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and ministry and prepared to begin our 
new lives in my husband's hometown, Moscow, Idaho.

Jeff was to join us 
that weekend, and for the first six months of our time in Moscow, in a house on 
Ridgeview Drive whose backyard overlooked the front yard and barn he and his 
grandfather built up on their family home, he was with us for nine days and 
"back there" for the next nine, winding up his 22-year tenure as co-owner of 
Total Landscape Corporation in Woodinville.  We had lived in Snohomish 
County for 18 years as his business took off and my ministry among immigrant 
workers flourished, and his family all lived in Snohomish and Monroe and Gold 
Bar, guaranteeing not only that we'd always have a babysitter, but that our sons 
would grow up knowing as much about being part of a close family as they did 
about layering outside attire so as to take advantage of every possible chance 
to be outdoors.  Anthony was three when we moved to our perfect little 
Monroe rancher on a perfect little residential street abutted by cul-de-sacs and 
filled with preschool-aged boys.  Jonah was born while we were there, and, 
except for an ill-advised move to Snohomish exactly a year before we moved to 
Moscow -- a move that still grieves us, accomplishing, as it did, nothing more 
than the uprooting of our sons' while failing to stanch the tide of work and 
ministry that had begun to take over our lives -- that's the home they grew up 
in.  

But the reality is that a God-prospered business and a 
God-directed ministry still can spill over their banks and consume a young 
family not adept at setting boundaries, and so, after much prayer and with equal 
parts anguish and joy, we decided to move to the place I fell in love with the 
first year of our marriage, 1984, when we went to a family reunion on the 
grounds of the little house behind the bank of trees we live in now -- the house 
that's nestled onto property that's been in Jeff's family for 127 years, the 
house I fell in love with that weekend even without going inside -- the house I 
know with all of my heart I was born to live in, in the town I considered my 
home even before I began living there.

Lots of big things have happened 
in the decade since we decided to "simplify our lives."  I've tried 
politics and continued my activism; I've suffered loss, worked myself to the 
point of exhaustion on losing causes, and lost contact with scores and scores of 
people I worked with for 12 years in Monroe.  It wasn't in the plan, of 
course, but I've gone through the fear and pain of physical illness and a car 
wreck that changed my life, and I smile at the irony that more sunny days in 
Moscow came to me when I was first too busy to enjoy them on my bicycle and now 
not at all busy and yet unable to enjoy them anyway by hiking, bicycling, and 
doing all of the strenuous things that I always had.  It hasn't all been 
good; it certainly hasn't all been "simple."  But through even the darkest 
days, I know I'm living in my hometown.  My family has prospered here in 
every way.  Jeff sold his share of his big, successful business and works 
now with a partner, his truck, and a bigger smile than I had seen during too 
much of the mid-1980s and 1990s.  My boys grew to like Moscow, but my 
eldest left even before he graduated from the University his grandfathers did, 
and my youngest seems more content here than I thought he would.  Anthony's 
back in Monroe-Snohomish; Jonah's thrilled to be at BookPeople.  The 
balance of our lives has been demonstrated, I suppose, in my sons, and each is 
where he should be.

But Jeff and I are here, and I wanted to take this 
time to thank Moscow for the innumerable gifts its given me.  Every sales 
clerk, pharmacist, grocery store cashier, barista, nurse, waitress, and office 
administrator who remembers my name has deepened my roots here, making me feel 
connected and cared for; every friend I've made has gladdened my heart.  
The doctor whose put up with me for ten years, Helen Shearer, is a Godsend, and 
the teachers who've enriched my sons' lives are as well.  This is a lively 
town, a hotbed of thought and activity.  I've wrangled with conservatives 
and infuriated liberals, and I've learned that some of the wisest people I know 
have very little formal schooling.  Conversely, my previous awe of the Ph.D 
and the Ed.D has been . . . well . . . more than a little tempered.  I've 
lived well, loved much, lost some, gained more, and been refined, tested, and 
strengthened by being part of the most wonderful town in the world.  I've 
eaten well, enjoyed music and art and theater and poetry, and have been moved to 
tears by the beauty of the woods to my east and the soft ripple of wind through 
green wheatfields to my west.  I've found the church I've always longed for 
and I marvel that they're glad they found me.  I've had the privilege of 
meeting many of you here on Vision 2020, and whether we've agreed or not, or 
whether I've annoyed you or encouraged you, you've been part of my "coming 
home," as John Denver put it, to a place I'd never been before.  My prayer 
is that those who know me would see that everything I've done publicly in Moscow 
has as its ultimate goal the betterment of our town.  I haven't always 
gotten it right.  It hasn't been the easiest, most simple, or least painful 
decade of my life -- not by a long shot.  But if life serves up hard 
things, I'm glad I've been rooted here to meet them.  Moscow is knit 
through my husband's and my family's history, and I'm beyond grateful that it's 
knit through the tapestry of my life and will be 'til the end.  I live in 
Moscow, Idaho, and with all of my heart, I thank God and I thank you all for 
your part in making this the only place I'll ever want to live.

You can't 
give a town a hug, but you can embrace it and its people.  If you're 
reading this, I'm glad you're here -- and I bet you are, too.

Go Vandals, 
go Bears, and Viva Latah County!

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com

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