What Gets Me Centered

I read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune that featured Brett Eldredge.

They highlighted that the artist comes from the tiny town (population 9,000) Paris, IL. Brett said that no matter what is happening in his life he always returns home to get centered and "put his feet back on the ground."

I'm much like Brett in that aspect. We both grew up in a small town and we both, when feeling like life is getting a little crazy, get centered by going back to our hometowns.

My parents still live in the same house that I grew up in. It's in the unincorporated village of Holcomb, IL. Just a little blip on the map about 20 miles South of Rockford a mile off of Highway 251. It's snuggled into the middle of  the green waving fields of corn and soybeans.There's not much there business wise. The Holcomb State Bank, a grain elevator, and a small welding business. There's about 75 homes in the town.

To some it may seem far away and remote. To me it's what gets me centered and back to feeling like me and who I am. I love the quiet. I love in the summer being surrounded by cornfields. There's just nothing like that sense of peace I get being there. A place to restore and rejuvenate the spirit.

I'm not the only family member who feels this way. My Aunt Judy, visiting from Pennsylvania, recently said to me that she always needs to come home to IL to get her cornfield fix. It's true there's just something about it.

So what place gets you centered and helps put things back in order when your life gets to crazy?

For me, well now you know. I can be found at my parents in Holcomb.