By ELKE GOVERTSEN
Sometimes the very best way to love a place is to get the heck outta there.
This is consistently the case for me with Missoula. I get to the point where my to-do list, the schedule, the weather and a zillion other things (like “work” and “husband” and “sons”) all seem to start blurring together in to a mess of something akin to a swarm of hornets. This point is typically best used as a catapult out of town.
My husband has a very cool Montana small business (www.rmrpro.com) that means he travels and works almost every day in the summer, hoofing it all over the Northwest. His only week off this summer also happened to be about when my world started buzzing and the kids were wrapping up school. So we hightailed it out of town with a speed that was again reminiscent of being chased by a swarm of hornets.
One plane, to another, to another, to a boat, to sea. I love shipping out. There is pure power in the simple act of untying a boat. Cut me loose. Let me go. Get outta town, cell service, the Internet’s sticky reach.
We fish, target practice, read, watch movies, play chess, make almost embarrassingly good food, and sleep long and deep. The swarm will never find us. The entire idea of home becomes unreal.
Eventually it is time to tie up. The harbor in that tiny town seems like a bustling port of civilization. This time the plane rides quiet. Plugging back in is tempered for a time by the ability to tune it all out when needed. Or wanted.
Coming home is remarkable. The crazy busy life of ours is OK, because I am now OK. It is important for me to remember this simplest of equation: OK=OK.
Our house, friends, and this valley full of opportunity welcomes us back rested and ready. And because we have been gone, the beauty and pace of Missoula are visible again. It is busy, but easy. Beautiful, but not demandingly so. Missoula’s enthusiasm is contagious. Bring on the farmers markets, the summer shuffle of work and kids, long days of unplugging at the river and remembering that plugging in is not so bad if you are plugging into a place like this. I am ready. Bring on the swarm.
Like this blog? Check out more from one of Missoula’s FAVORITE Mamas About Town, Elke Govertsen: Norman Rockwell’s Got Nothing on Missoula, Anywhere but Missoula, MT, or It’s all Relative. And check out Missoula Children and Nature Network and Active Moms Missoula.
Back to the Mama About Town blog home page. Thoughts? Please scroll below and feel free to comment.
Click here to see Mama About Town archive.
************
Bio: Elke Govertsen is the publisher of Mamalode which is a magazine and website for area moms. When not juggling her family, business, and the laundry (disclosure – there is no laundry being done whatsoever), Elke tries to eek out time to write, do yoga, and read like a fiend.