Why DO They Use Artificial Turf In Iowa Stadiums?

Des Moines sure knocked my socks off. Tomorrow is my last full day here, and I'll say I never expected to have such amazing experiences.

I have grown so much in this place, thus I've learned a lot--about myself, my path, this life.

I had invaluable adventures, created impressionable memories, and met so many new souls, all of which enlightened me.

Being around my niece and nephew, and watching these small humans in their stages of total dependency and attachment, I also developed this huge understanding about love. I have begun to see how love is the foundation of all the basic human needs. Our needs for touch, affection, physicality, affirmation. If we're lucky, we get adequate amounts in our childhoods. But now as adults, outside of our homes and away from the comfort of family, we still need just as much. We need to feel other bodies. We like someone close to us when we fall asleep. We crave attention. Eyes that notice us. We need kisses. We want someone to grab us. To hold us tight when we need a good cry.

So we find it in the places we can, and we hope those sources are trustworthy and healthful to us; places of substance.

And I think it's ok that way.I think when we find ourselves in those moments of uninhibited love with another human, we get a glimpse and a taste of God's character--its perfection and wholeness.

As far as my own inner discovery goes, I've realized I naturally see the highest potential in people. This can be destructive, as I live in a world of idealism and don't always acknowledge where people actually are, but I'm working on the balance. The true beauty in this gift surfaces when you choose to see the possibilities for all the human life around you, because then you have the power to make people's lives a little better, in the simplest of ways. Namely because you help people to see the abundant light in themselves.

I'm rambling, and being extremely nostalgic because I have spent a few months loving people here and now it is time once again to be on my way. As some of my favorite artists have said,

"I move on to another day, to a whole new town with a whole new way (Modest Mouse)"

and I feel "like a rolling stone, with no direction home (Bob Dylan)" but I will continue, because "you pass through places and places pass through you, but you carry em' with you on the soles of your travelin' shoes (The Be Good Tanyas)"

for

"If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be travelling on, now,

'Cause there's too many places I've got to see.

But, if I stayed here with you

Things just couldn't be the same (Lynyrd Skynyrd).

Oh, and the answer to the blog title is "to keep the cheerleaders from grazing." Had to throw one Iowa joke in here...I am still a Minnesota gal' ;)