I lived in a planned community, on a golf course, with private security, walking trails, community parks, and an HOA (Home Owners Association) that has an entire manual of rules that one has to abide by in order to live in this community. The lots are small, the houses tend to be super sized and seems like everyone drives an over sized SUV or some other foreign luxury vehicle.
I don't belong here. Some days, I just want to pack up and leave suburban living in the rear view mirror.
My house is small, I drive a 1996 Accura, yes that's not a typo ~1996! That makes my car 15 years old ~ frankly, I'm surprised the HOA doesn't ticket me for having a car that is not in keeping with the standards of the neighborhood.
The HOA police drive around at least once a week scrutinizing the condition of our homes, our yards, making sure the garbage cans have been parked out of sight, garage doors are closed, that you haven't removed a tree without their permission, put up a bird house without their approval or changed the color of your house trim without it passing through their committees ... the list goes on and on and on.
I get the whole idea behind the purpose of an HOA. It serves to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood and ensures some sense of continuity and uniformity of the neighborhood's overall appearance. No one is allowed to park an RV or boat out front on the street for months on end. They send you warning notices if you leave a bag of mulch out on your driveway overnight, a bucket on your front porch, if the grass isn't cut short enough, if there you have weeds that need to be pulled up, if your landscaping isn't full enough to meet the neighborhood rules or if your home is falling into some state of disrepair.
Sometimes the minutia of all the rules seems to border on assinine, but I really do get it and I really do appreciate their efforts and the expected results ... our neighborhood always looks reasonably appealing and consistent. That helps home values and protects me from having someone next door from painting their trim purple, or parking a trailer in their side yard or putting up a shed that blocks my view etc. etc. When we choose to live in these neighborhoods, it is incumbent that we follow the rules.... period. If you don't like it, then move.... and this is what we pay for in the mandatory HOA dues which are nearly $1000/year.
But, we do live on top of each other and I've never gotten used to that .... I like my privacy and I can NEVER seem to enjoy just a quiet moment outside by myself. Now I guess if you had neighbors that didn't have a pool, didn't have post-teenagers who have a steady stream of friends over day and night and cars parked all over the street, this might not be an issue. But I do, and it becomes annoying to always feel like you have company or are intruding on theirs when you're out in your own yard. I've learned to choose my moments to go out and garden or just sit outside based on whether the neighbors are out or not. Because we're on the golf course, wooden fences are not permitted and landscaping helps, but it has to stay in proportion to the yard ... when I step out of my kitchen door it's only 4 feet to the property line, so there's limits as to how much shrub screening is effective but still attractive.
I long for a cowboy kind of life..... just a few acres in the country , a decent distance away from people, traffic and corner shopping malls, lots of trees, a pond or creek, some decent privacy and just plain quietness and real darkness at night .... the kind where you can see the stars.
IF (operative word) I had the money, I would move out of suburbia and to the country in a heartbeat .... buy the land, build a rustic modest home with a big wrap around porch, plant a big garden , get a couple of country dogs, go for long daily walks through the fields or woods and just enjoy the solitude of simpler, quieter living.
Not going to happen , at least not anytime soon, so I am constantly on the lookout for my own urban oasis of creekbanks and open fields in which to roam with my hiking stick and enjoy some nature.... unfortunately I always have to drive to these places before I can enjoy them.
I know without a doubt that I'm a country girl at heart .... at the very least, a small town girl, so no one who knows me well would be surprised as I shudder with indifference to life in suburbia.
Yielding all I know about me to all I know about Him.
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