By Heather Wilson

It was almost a year ago I made the move from a coastal city of over one and a half million to an ocean-less, rural Northwest Arkansas town; population two-thousand – and two. It was an adjustment, a culture shock; a struggle. I longed for the world and life I left behind to become a ‘fuller’-time stepmother; to live a whole new way of life and to expose myself to thoughts and ideas that were, to say the least, foreign to me. I was scared and unsure. I wanted to open my mind, yet I hesitated. I kept hearing, “Give it a year.” It might as well have been, “Give it a lifetime,” until one day, I’m not quite sure when, I started realizing what was in front of me is just as important as what I had felt I left behind.

When my husband and I first moved into our home; a home we could not have afforded in our past place of residence, we were greeted by the humidity and mosquitos of summer in the south. I saw a mouse and cried, surprised thereafter that others didn’t see this as a huuuge deal. On the second day after our arrival, we watched through the window as two young bucks zealously ate flowers less than five feet from where we stood; spotted little Bambis, if you will. For this city girl it was a whole new experience watching deer eat in MY own yard. Soon the lightning bugs followed and childhood memories came to mind. Cool drinks on the deck swing watching the leaves of our walnut and oak trees sway as they went from green to yellow and orange served as a reminder I would now get to experience seasons; and an autumn with an abundance of color and beauty I hadn’t seen in years. The leaves fell, the groundhogs hibernated and the hummingbirds migrated to warmer pastures while the cardinals stayed displaying their striking red against the silhouette of winter. The sunsets peeked through the trees and soon the cold wasn’t so bitter as the backdrop of the land we call our backyard began to feel more like home.

Along with spring came the fragrance of honeysuckle and the brightest of roses planted by my husband I excitedly walk out to see and smell each morning. The days and nights roasting s’mores over the fire pit, hearing the laughter of my stepdaughters in a way only children can laugh and finally understanding why I’m here have passed quickly. And somehow, sometime I realized the importance of that which is bigger than I: Open-mindedness to a whole new world and adventure upon which I embarked; the love of family; the love of children I would have otherwise not gotten to know. This is why I am here-for an education that cannot come from a book.

The spots have disappeared since that hot July afternoon and our two young bucks are now in velvet. They along with members of their family visit daily, almost fearless of our presence. Perhaps they come to remind me not to forget how far I’ve come and of this bounty; a bounty that awaited me greater than any treasure I could have imagined. And they remind me, I’ve found it in my backyard.

Miami, Florida native Heather Wilson is an Air Force brat who said she’d never marry a man in the military, so of course she did. After her husband finished his career in the US Navy, they made the move from San Diego, California to his native rural Northwest Arkansas to be with his children. Honored with Business Traveler Magazine’s title of Business Traveler of the Year, Heather is an events and experiential marketing expert, cancer survivor, tea aficionado and biker chick who strives to live the ‘gift is in the giving’. She is amusing herself and others learning to be a city girl living in a country world. You can follow her adventures at Country Life, City Wife and via social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.