Are you a localist?

THE HASHTAG TALK

Is it because I'm staring?

Or is the momentum of LOCAL really steaming ahead all around the US?

I'm not sure of the answer, but I am seeing more FB messages promoting and more people talking about the BUY LOCAL movement than ever before in my life. 

Jill Spitz, managing editor of the The Arizona Daily Star, recently initiated a website/FB page that, in part, highlights cool locally owned businesses, charities, and entertainment. I call it new age hippie stuff.   http://tucson.com/thisistucson/  BTW, Jill is one of the most connected people I know in Tucson; I think she  exemplifies healthy place attachment. She invests astounding time and energy in local entities that matter to her, such as the progressive Tucson Chinese Cultural Center and her son's unique charter school (all I did when my girls went to the same school was show up...an attitude that perhaps flows over into why I never felt very attached to Tucson) 

A little more traditional, I think, is how my new friend Sherry Abraham shines light on local business at the other end of Albuquerque from us through her connections with the Town Council and the Edgewood Chamber of Commerce. Ribbon Cuttings. Promotions on Facebook. Fun Events. 

On a wider scale, the Independence Business Alliance and affiliates have ramped up LOCAL campaigns all across the country.  Among other things, they initiate events Like Small Business Saturday, Buy Local Month...and did you know there's now even a 

RECORD STORE DAY? 

Rio Rancho can start celebrating this because an old ABQ record store was re-invented in RR when Cristy Records opened the door here on Nov 17. The goal is to promote New Mexico artists though the store is also a museum for musical history. Sounds like a happy place for bohemians and boomers alike! 

Research indicates that MORE PEOPLE ARE BUYING LOCAL AND IT MATTERS. The IBA website notes that  "a 2015 survey of more than 3000 business owners, independent business in communities with a long-term “buy local and independent campaign” reported revenue growth of 9.3%, nearly double the 4.9% increase for independent businesses not served by such efforts." http://www.amiba.net/buy-local-campaigns/

Did you notice?  

Local businesses INCREASED revenue in 2015 
EVEN 

WITHOUT THE BUY LOCAL HULLABALOO.  

But WITH IT, the revenue was more than twice as much! 

So I'd say social media, personal examples, 

and research converge to show that 

the mushrooming of the local movement is real, 

and I would likely see it a lot 

even if I were not looking at the faces of it. 

BUT...is it good to get a "ticket to ride" on this fast moving LOCAL train?

That depends on WHY you're riding.

No doubt, buying local circulates money around the local economy, and gives governments more funds to create better living conditions for all citizens. Like all the parks in Rio Rancho!

Based on that, local IS win-win. Mostly. 

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BUT....I'm riding this train because I want to attach to my new community, and BUY LOCAL is one way Melody Warnick's book "The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live" indicates I can start to make PLACE ATTACHMENT. Local, when it all aligns right, makes me FEEL HAPPY. It makes me want to STAY here. 

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If the reason for your ticket is to cut expenses, 

I'd advise jumping off the caboose. 

For me and for now, PLACE ATTACHMENT supersedes the full ride of financial savings programs such as Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. 

Sorry, but LOCAL does not equal 

short-term FRUGAL. 

It just doesn't.  

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Buy Local

http://buyriorancho.com

RESULTS from LOVE YOUR CITY CHECKLIST Chapter 3, BUY LOCAL

1. Commit to buying 1 item locally.  For us, that's a service -- HAIRCUTS.  

2. Spend $50 each month among 3 locally owned businesses.  That's $16.66 each plus tax, Steve & I agreed upon: 

1. 1 eatery (Tao's Chinese on Southern Blvd); 
2. 1 store (Believer's on Southern Blvd.) and, as noted above, 
3. 1 service (haircuts). 

We'll probably spend more than that on each one, but that's our base. 

3. Consider unexpected benefits of buying local even if it costs more. Results: 

• Hair stylist made a special appointment on a Sunday for Haley so she could get her hair done during her Thanksgiving break from college. When she invited us to her church, we felt like we'd gained a new friend.

• Christian gift store took double pains to order a particular plaque that I asked about yesterday. The co-owner, Jayne, was the 1st person I met in Rio Rancho! I told her I was struggling over leaving my older daughters behind in Arizona. Lo and behold, she'd done the same thing when she moved here a few years ago. I immediately fell in love with this store! 

• And, well, the quality of the food at Tao's is better than ANY Chinese place we have ever eaten in the U.S. except in LA's Chinatown. Also, one time we got to briefly meet the awesome cooks at Tao's. I cannot think of any other Chinese restaurant that has introduced us to the chefs!
  
  

4. Shop at an indie business that gives back to the community.  

Blank on that so far. Not quite sure where to find this info. Until we do, we're going with RR & ABQ's CAFE BELLA -- website touts that  "Locally Micro Roaster gives 10% back to growers" although we don't really know what that means.

What we DO know is that CAFE BELLA reminds us of our hippie days, it feels good, it tastes fabulous (worth every extra dollar!).  http://www.cafebellacoffee.com

                                                                       

5. Attend a local cash mob. It's connecting with a group of strangers who each commit to buying X amount at a certain store during a certain time together. No one knows which store until the start time.

Couldn't find one in Rio Rancho. Checked out a FB page called ABQ Cash Mob. Looked like it worked for awhile, then the fav place seemed to be the ABQ Rail Yards, then it morphed into a charity work, and then, it vanished.  So, I'm going a Melody route...our $50 per month is our "individual cash mob" for local businesses. Plus, I have some issues with how early cash mobs were conducted such as safety, values, and wisdom. Melody gives them grace, tried them; and in some cities they are thriving. 

6. Don't showroom. That means seeing something in a store and then ordering it from a cheaper online outlet. 

I tried this once. Cost me 50% more at the ABQ bookstore. (Couldn't find a regular bookstore in Rio Rancho). 

7. Invest locally. 

The mortgage we're trying to obtain and the house we're trying to build are both through New Mexico companies. As well as our realtors who work through mom-and-pop type brokerages out of ABQ. http://palodurohomes.com

We'll see if it all falls together in due time. 

Honestly, though, we didn't select the builder BECAUSE it was a local company but because of the QUALITY of their product for people with allergies. In some ways it's been harder and in other ways easier than using national companies to try to do this. 

Again, we'll see if it all works out in due time.

In the meantime, we have invested in our community another way Melody suggests by joining a local credit unit. 

Oh, wait, WHAT is local? 

Not sure if there IS a Rio Rancho credit union per se. 

How about an ABQ one? Or an AREA credit union?  

Or a New Mexico credit union?  

WHAT IS LOCAL?

And THAT question brings us to the hashtags below.

TAKE-AWAY HASHTAG

##Whatislocalanyway
  ##RRABQNMAmerican-made?##isthereasweetspotforlocalvsgoodstewardship
##whataboutqualityandconsistency
##wannabealocalist?

NEXT INSTALLMENT:  Hashtag Discussion

Community Connection: Health Walking

In honor of  my best friend, Connie's, birthday yesterday,  hubby and I are starting a new health program which mixes up walking, strengthening, and relaxing.  We want to use this as another way to connect with our new community.

"I'd taken that first step because I'd wanted to look better. I'd wanted my clothes to fit. But it didn't take me long to figure out that the biggest benefit was less about vanity than it was about sanity. Walking always helped."  The Wildwater Walking Club, pg 198.

WHAT:

Marshalling the tools to embark on this venture was, and is, a foray into a river of connections.  We started with the new Rio Rancho library, where I checked out The Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy, and renewed it at the old, but bustling, sister library.  Because the book is a little complicated  we have thought of purchasing it from amazon.

Alert! SHOWCASING! Alert!

That alarm buzzed out of the pages of our connection guidebook, This Is Where You Belong, by Melody Warnick.  Viewing an item locally, whether in stores or, in this case the library, and buying it online is called "showcasing" and becomes a wasted opportunity to put roots down, or invest, in our own place.  Right now, though, we don't even know if there IS a local bookstore in Rio Rancho so we'll keep the library book until we can research that.

However, we DO know of a local shoe store that sells all kinds of shoes for the best fit ever. (Local, in this case, being Albuquerque.)  It is called Sole Comfort Shoes, and is unlike any other shoe store at which I've shopped. I told the professional there that when I was in the 6th grade a salesperson at Montgomery Ward's informed me that they could never fit my feet, labeling them as "deformed" and, indeed, since then I've had a lot of unfit shoes! The pro measured, examined, and tested my feet and figured out EXACTLY what the problem is and found shoes that worked best for that challenge!

And so, when we visited this store last October, Sole Shoes started my romance with ABQ when Seve bought me a dress pair for my birthday. Maybe this year he me get a pair of walking shoes there.

http://www.solecomfortabq.com




The no-frills pedometer came from a Walmart in ABQ just on the edge of Rio Rancho. Warnick admits that the big box stores are always going to factor into our lives, no matter how much we want to support local businesses. Plus, my friend Jenna Wiley, reminded me that local people work at those chain stores.

Because this plan calls for an immense amount of water, we have a variety of containers for that. One is a special balloon fiesta cup from a restaurant chain that was started in ABQ in 1991 and put roots down in RR in 1994. The other is a plain water bottle from Steve's new dentist in RR, even though the dentists, like other health pros, travel around from RR, ABQ, Santa Fe.

WHEN:

Our new plan calls for walking on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Our only time frame for that is to go within 30 minutes after eating.

HOW:

We read somewhere that it's good to work up to a 30 minute daily walk but we are starting at 12 minutes per walking day until we can reach the 30 minute goal.

I am also recording my steps; today, for me, 12 minutes equaled about 266 steps.

WHERE:

Holly and I go to parks, especially those with dog areas, to achieve the 12 minute goal while Steve needs to explore some around our apartment community or use the treadmill in the fitness room after his work.

Today's park was an "oldie but goodie" because it featured a giant obstacle course for dogs! 

In my prayer walking post,  I talked about the Prescription Trails at parks around our city. Our future goal is to visit some of the nature trails, like Willow Creek Trail, around RR. 

Where do you like to walk in nature?

 For a light-hearted look at a Nature Walk, with stunning Missouri photos check out my friend Marcia's blog at 
http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/2016/10/nature-walk.html

WHO:

I prefer walking by myself because, as noted in a previous blog, I'm a turtle. Holly and our dog Chester come with me but don't walk beside of me. Steve's much more of a hiker than a walker.

But...there are advantages to walking with a partner or even a walking club such as motivating each other toward a common goal.

The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook features a fictionalized walking club of three neighbor women, new to each other, who plod along together over life changes and challenges. They use something that grows all over Albuquerque as their motivational goal! 

If you guessed chile, this time time you wouldn't even be hot!

After x number of combined steps, the women go to a fancy-schmanzy Lavender Festival in the Pacific Northwest.  Maybe our  library houses this book because of that connection; they could have just have easily visited Los Poblanos here. When we have time, we  enjoy traveling the 25 mph road in and out of "The Q"  that goes by Los Poblanos.  The website describes it best: 

"Set among 25 acres of lavender fields, enormous cottonwood trees and lush formal gardens, Los Poblanos is one of the most magnificent historic properties in the Southwest."
http://www.lospoblanos.com/lavender-organic-farm/lavender-farm/

While we don't have a walking club,  I am hoping to find a "pedometer partner" who will log steps for joint accountability.  I hope I can find someone who would rather go to a Los Poblanos than to a Hatch chile farm!  My partner may have to come from out of state, because chile, is well, NEW MEXICO. 

I'm thinking this approach gives a little nudge, but eliminates messy factors like having to be in the same place at the same time, not to mention going at the same pace. Melody Warnick aside, I'll chalk it up to "internet community connection." 

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NEXT INSTALLMENT:  Chapter 3 Experiments from This is Where You Belong is something which never caught my eye before now but I see it EVERYWHERE these days.  It's all about:

BUY LOCAL

PRAYER WALKING

"Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." Genesis 5:24

The 100-year-old house sat atop a steep green and rocky yard on Crescent Road in the West Virginia hills. It took about 75 stair steps to reach the long narrow porch where my Mom sat stringing green beans. 

I still remember the grey wooden planks on the porch, the red asbestos shingles on the house, and the walks I took with God all around that property when I was a little girl.

God and I were constantly talking about family, flowers, the watermelon patch, Dad's Friday night surprises, our little dog Mia, my quietness, the cool outfits that Aunt Martha sewed for me, and about Vacation Bible school with our neighbors, where I learned the story of Enoch. 

How I loved that story! I literally thought that someday, if I was just good enough -- and WALKED ENOUGH -- maybe I could just walk off to heaven with God too.

To me, that is a pure and simple type of prayer walk. 

It's also kind of selfish, slim on outward focus. Not really the kind of walk Enoch had with God. Of course, dealing with our own lives is a solid first step to broader prayer of any kind.  

So far, I have not found any Biblical commandment that requires prayer walking. Some say since the Bible clearly says "pray without ceasing" and walking was a major part of life in those days, prayer walking was also.  Or at least it should be followed as one of the New Testament ways of the church

I don't make those leaps. 

BUT... while I strongly believe that God can hear and answer my prayer for a merchant on a street in China whether or not I am standing on that street or a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, I do think there is real benefit to prayer walking. 

We sing "open my eyes to see like Jesus sees" but if we wall ourselves off from PLACES to see and the PEOPLE there, how can we fully receive answer to that song? Prayer walking is a way to SEE (the walk),  to DO (pray) and to CONNECT (belong, invest).

A google search of "prayer walking" turns up a boatload of articles on this simple subject, though the sails usually come back to: WHERE, HOW & WHY.  

The why sail swirls around these 3 winds:

Devotional

I usually think of Crowder's song OPEN SKIES for this kind of prayer walking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwM8vgulzdI

For me, the best devos almost always involve music, especially outside.

Incidental

Talking with God about whatever pops into my mind, much like I did as a child. 

Intentional

Did you know you can go on a MISSION trip INTENDED just for prayer walking? Or we can join one of the world-wide movements that teach how and where to do this type of prayer walk. For instance, if the intent is to pray over local elections, how about prayer walking around City Hall?  If it is to pray for the physical health of a community, maybe the prayer walk would focus around the perimeter of a local hospital.  

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The HOW sail might focus an activity (like high school football in the town), structures (like a storage facility), service (like clerks at the Motor Vehicle Department), change (like widening of a road), hope (for a business on the brink) or need (like for affordable living places). 

HOW also means whether the walk is a group, partnership or individual effort. Some times prayer walks even morph into big, public events. 

The WHERE sail stems from the Why and and How sails. 

But WHAT does one pray during these outings?  Various writers espouse:  Discernment, Blessing, Empathy, Leadership, Peace, Truth, as well as praying specific Scriptures during the walk. 

Then there's the simple way -- "Lord, teach us how to pray on this walk."

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HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO PLACE MAKING?

I submit that prayer is

the very heart of real place making. 

When we invest God's love for our community into prayer walking, it takes ALL of us:

Our time, our physical being, our emotions, our intellect, our thought into the space that surrounds us.

Our eyes open to needs and dreams and PEOPLE 

that surround us in fresh, new ways.

And it becomes a symbiotic relationship, give and take, where we see and pray, then pray and see. 

And then...it happens...

we start to get connected in personal and real ways.

_________________________________________________________________________________

My Experiment in Prayer Walking

To date, I have not done this in our new community. 
I first want to be able to  huff more than 1 sentence. 
So, next installment: HEALTH WALKING

_________________________________________________________________________________

LEARNING TO LOVE 

OUR NEW CITY 

BY LACING UP!  

My Chapter 2 Experiment from This is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick

I literally HATE walking. It hurts my feet. It hurts my legs. I huff and puff. And nobody likes to walk with a turtle like me. IF this chapter had REALLY been about walking, I would have tossed this book in the rubbish.

But it's not.

It is a how-to of one of the big Mom-ism that my daughters will never forget: KNOW where you are in the world. Especially geographically.  

The author's checklist is a way to start CONNECTING with that geography. CONNECTING creates BONDING creates ATTACHMENT and doing this with your city brings PLACE ATTACHMENT, at least theoretically.

Here's what happened to the theory in real life:

TASK 1: 

Get a map (I used one of those old fashioned PAPER maps!) and draw a circle around your address with a 1 mile radius. Then walk or bicycle that mile from all directions so you can do errands, buy stuff, get to know people. Eat.

RESULT 1: 

FAILURE  

Bicycling is a "long ago dream" and, it's too hilly where we live to for Steve, Holly, or me to even walk much around the neighborhood. (OK...I know that's odd because I grew up in West Virginia but, hey, I'm old now! And Holly has a bum knee.) Even if I could do the mile, it would not matter because there's only one thing to do (golf!) within that 1 mile radius. Don't believe me?

The Walk Score of our address is a big fat 2, with 100 being the most walkable and 0 being pretty much UNWalkable. What’s the walk score of YOUR address? https://www.walkscore.com

TASK 2: 

Explore unfamiliar areas with a GPS. By foot or bicycle.

RESULT 2: 

So-So

If we RELIED on GPS or Siri to get us places here, we would be lost constantly! Clearly, google updates are in order!  Plus phones and internet are kind of sketchy in this neck of the woods. Amazing in a place that birthed Microsoft and now houses INTEL!

But all is not lost. EVERYTHING is unfamiliar and my daughters will testify that I have always done these adventures (in a car) because I'm like UPS...I don't generally make left turns.

So in my 1 mile radius of The City of Vision, I have now learned how to meander around housing developments, where traffic vans sit (pretty much EVERYWHERE!), what neighborhoods seem to have the most repair vehicles, which houses are older and where the in-fill is developing, how to get in and out of my street the back way. Yeah, I think this task produced a sliver of connection.

TASK 

Go on an historic walking tour. We trudged all over OLD TOWN ALBUQUERQUE for this because our own city was only incorporated in 1981 whereas ABQ touts a 300+ year history though not incorporated until 1885. 
(NOTE: OLD TOWN is now a fun, touristy place. So Steve drove us through the older part of the real downtown ABQ. Not gentrified much yet, this area is with peppered with hole-in-the-wall eateries that Steve loves to discover but also heartbreaking homelessness.)

RESULT:

FAILURE 

While the walking tour enamored us of ABQ, it didn't really connect us to our place, which is about 30-45 minutes from ABQ if we stay on the back roads.

TASK: 

The book ticks off a number of other things one can do to almost FORCE more people to walk the same 1 mile radius but we're not into commandeering a group. For now, this is a family experiment for us. However, the suggestion for individuals to try to draw from memory the things around the 1 mile was worth a gander and sharpened our mindfulness when we were out and about.

RESULT: 

So-So

I can draw stoplights, stop signs, some road names, a few vacant lots, the golf course, and some plants that are very near our address. It really did help me to better "know where I am in the world." I think the timeline for this connection could be boosted by a photographic tour (in our case, by the passenger in the car, of course!)

CONCLUSIONS

On the TV show SHARK TANK I recently watched a woman who failed at making apple jam turn the mistake into plant based honey! Likewise, I think the mostly failed results of my Chapter 1 experiment turned into HONEY because....


Although our neighborhood isn't very walkable, the parks in our city are plentiful and offer a Prescription Trail Number. A park with the highest number 3 offers challenging walking areas for the physically fit but a 1 offers accessible, easy walking space. For turtles like me! YAHOO...we live near a 1! I don't know if all states have Prescription Trails, but check out https://prescriptiontrails.org for New Mexico's.

Only it's NOT the walking at the park that matters so much in CONNECTING....it's the OTHER park feature upon which we stumbled that's the real honey for attachment:

DOG PARKS!

THIS is where people socialize! 

Day or evening! 
Old or young!

THIS is the place to connect with people that have a common interest. 

Conversations strike right up: 

"Where did you get him? Can you suggest a vet? Where do you buy her dog food?"

Research shows that is NOT just OUR FAMILY's experiences. For the very reasons noted above, dog parks are the fastest growing segment of municipal parks today! It's good for the dogs, it's good for the people, and it's good for the CITY. http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/culture/how-cities-may-benefit-from-dog-parks

And DOG PARKS ARE really, really good 

for PLACE ATTACHMENT.

But back to walking....

Although the purpose of Warnick’s walking wasn’t fulfilled by her task list on what I now call PLACE WALKING, park walking has proved prosperous as a prayer walking and health benefit. I plan to delve into those in my next postings, though they are off the beaten path from the book.

NEXT EXPERIMENT: Prayer Walking.  

And then Health Walking.

Although there's more to fully unlocking the feeling of belonging, the necessity of walking for life, without a car, in Blacksburg and China was a MAJOR KEY as to why we "belonged" in those places.

NEXT EXPERIMENT: Prayer Walking.  

And then Health Walking.

Do you love where you live?

New Directions!

This book!
It's changing our lives.
It's opening our hearts.
And it changed this blog! From personal, private essays to this launch of a public account of how we're learning to belong where we are. And that's a long time coming!

For years, we thought we'd eventually return to China when our daughters finished high school. But the hubs first needed some solid experience in the states in his new profession. Finally, we considered that maybe full time in China wasn't the best option for us. At least not yet. Maybe not ever. 

So we explored  opportunities in Nevada and Montana, all the while dreaming about the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then a good door opened in Tucson, so we decided to keep dangling our keys in the Old Pueblo. 

But that was not to be! 

Although our hearts are still fully vested in missions, orphans and China, the compass recently led us to do life in the Albuquerque area. We dearly love family here, but it's a place we had NEVER wanted to live.  EVER.  We'd both resided in NM before, so we knew ABQ wasn't our cup of tea or, so to speak, our slice of chile. (And, yeah, we're old enough to know better than to tell God where or what we DON'T want!)

New Romance? Are we enchanted yet?

After seven months of working out this move, we are FINALLY together in the Land of Enchantment! At least four of us are.  

Just before moving here,  I was trying to figure out how we would possibly EVER learn to like this new spoke in the road. Steve loves his new job, and it's fabulous to live near extended family. It also helps that I have my own friends who had moved from their hometown to Albuquerque a number of years ago.  One of them told me it took her three years to like the Duke City.  

Sigh. Three years?


Soon after I tried to think this through, FB excerpts that magically flowed across my page piqued my curiosity because the title made me think it might tell us how to squish three years into....hmmm ....
how about three months? 

Hey, God is able to do more than I can dream or imagine, right?

Do you check out an author before you read a book? That's my

modus operandi. I could hardly believe what I saw about this writer. She penned the book, in simple terms, because at the time she didn't much like the place I love most in the world: Blacksburg, Virginia! And that's really why I KEPT reading. 

How dare she not like Blacksburg!  

The book is called  "This is Where You Belong -- The Art and Science of Loving the Place you Live" by Melody Warnick.    

 http://melodywarnick.com/

Daughter Haley visiting VA TECH 
a few years ago for a Summer Architecture Workshop.
______________________________________________________
I was 10 years old when I first fell in love with Blacksburg.
I can still feel the crisp mountain air and 
the autumn leaves crackling under my shoes that day. 
That's when I declared that I WOULD graduate from Tech.
NOTHING would stop me. And so it was. 

Warnick helped me see WHY I loved Blacksburg and she didn't. Why Steve and I immediately felt at home in China. And why we never really felt like we belonged in Tucson. (That revelation's going to surprise a lot of folks! He'd lived there since the 70's!) 

But Warnick goes beyond the psych couch -- she delves into HOW to LEARN to love WHEREVER you live. Even if it is a place called ABQ. Or where we actually live -- dubbed the City of Vision, which is now the third largest city in New Mexico. But at the moment, it's all one big blob to us. 

New Vision, New Blog

....Come along for the Ride

And so a new purpose for this blog was birthed out of her writings, at least for a season. In the realm of the movie  Julia, Julia where the blogger writes about her experiences of following Julia Child's recipes day by day, I hope to write about our experiences of following Warnick's ideas.

Of courting our new place. 

Three differences: 
1) Julia followed recipes exactly, but we have to adapt experiences to situations, place, and age, 
2) Our testings won't go in chronological order of the book, and 
3) I probably won't write Every. Single. Day. 

I was going to start a DIFFERENT blog for this but the name of this blog-- ANCHORING --  fits like a comfy sock in a sneaker, don't you think?

On that note, stay tuned for the 1st Installment:  Sneakers!

"But godliness with contentment is great gain...." 

I Timothy 6:6