The ups and downs of city life

(This is a post I began about a month ago, and never posted. So here you go!)

In the past few weeks, my relationship with Harrisburg has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. Someone threw a rock at my window and broke it last week...and yesterday my bike was stolen. There were also some incidences of loud, disturbing middle-of-the-night craziness that can be a regular occurrence at times. These are the times when I wonder, "Why am I here, again?" Sometimes I forget the original reasons for wanting to live intentionally in the city.

But the saving graces outweigh the negatives:

A small group of friends went swimming in the river at a spot they frequent where I had never been before. It has a beautiful view of the mountains, the sun was setting, and the shallow rapids are calming and meditative. I am thankful that in this city, at least, it is relatively easy to drive 5-10 minutes up the road and really connect with nature.

National Night Out was a wonderful night full of old friends from the general community who I hadn't seen for a while. The girls I worked with in my first job out of college, who were young, shy, beautiful 11-13 year olds are now confident, resilient, beautiful 14-16 year olds. I felt a part of the community as I wandered around, greeting the youth and catching up.

A conversation with an acquaintance on the street tied it all together. He knocked on the window of my office when he saw me, motioning for me to come outside. He had seen me make an announcement at church and was excited to remind me about it. We started talking about lots of things: his church, the neighborhood, how things have changed in the many years he has lived in Allison Hill.

He talked about the "old days" in Allison Hill, how there used to be a vibrant farmer's market, and more stores and places of business. This was before the riots, he said. And then, after the riots, people started moving out. At least the ones who could move out, the ones who had the means to. Most of them unfortunately happened to be white.

But then he pointed to a house across the street from where we were standing, a house where an older white couple lives. "They've stuck it out," he said, "I have to tell them someday how much that means to me, they've been here for years." It was evident that their choice to stay in the city of Harrisburg, through good and bad times, meant a lot to him. It was like a statement of solidarity. While countless white churches and white families moved out of the city, a few stayed, symbolically saying, "Hey, we're in this together. We're not going anywhere."

So I am reminded of the joys, blessings, and the reasons I have chosen to live here in the first place.