By Kelli Bowen
Moving to the other side of the state brings some factors that need to be adapted to, like I’m not in the Red River or Sheyenne Valley anymore. I can’t pick a random spot in my yard, put a few seeds in a hole, and wait for lush wonder to grace us in the form of a garden.
We are in the desert climate. We haven’t had quantifiable moisture in weeks. I tried to plant some seeds and the parched dirt coughed back one underdeveloped cucumber and one radish. So that’s different. A town elder told our children not to run in sandals because of the cacti. So that’s different.
Last weekend, we went to a local fall festival where the girls carved pumpkins and played carnival games while we got sunburned. We are over a week into October and today’s temperature was close to 90. I had a Facebook memory of an early-season blizzard five years ago…So that’s different.
We had record-high winds last Saturday. Wildfires engulfed land to the north of us. On the east side of the state, that same wind velocity would rip every leaf off every tree, but I’ve been in awe of all of the cottonwoods showing off their foliage still. So that’s different.
As we put pumpkins out on the step, we realize we are probably feeding the deer who frequent our yard every night. On the east side, the only yard terrorists were our neighbors’ allowed-to-roam dogs and cats. So that’s different.
The population of our former town is double the population of our current county. We had as many people in the middle school choir in our last school as total kids in this new one. So that’s different.
You know what we have found? Different isn’t bad. Different is just different. May we all embrace the different.
Kelli makes her home in Billings County with her husband, two daughters and a dog. She works for North Dakota's #1 tourist destination by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend, and writer by night.
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