I was recently talking with a friend in Silver City, New Mexico who volunteers at the city’s visitors’ center. He relayed a story told him by a visiting tourist: that she had asked the clerk at a local convenience store what there is to do in Silver City and the clerk told her “There’s nothing to do here.”  Imagine the horror and frustration for someone who knows about the Billy the Kid house, the Gila National Forest, Silver City’s old town and gallery scene, every festival and event, and – well- all kinds of things.

It made me wonder why so many of us neglect our own back yards.  I grew up just two hours outside New York City but didn’t visit the Statue of Liberty until I was middle aged.  I appreciate my current home town of Silver City and have gotten involved in a number of events, but I have neighbors who don’t recognize the name of the main street through old town. (No, it’s not “Main Street”.  Come visit and find out. lol)

I guess part of the problem is that your local town is generally where you work, so for fun you go away.  Consider that, no matter where you live, there are likely to be people who come to your town to ‘get away’.

Every town has pluses and minuses, and it can be easy to be disheartened by traffic problems or a boarded-up store and focus on the negative.  Remember that it is still a beautiful world.  I hope you will visit their your own local attractions.  If I may paraphrase a quote I like, see what blooms where you’re planted.