Living & Loving Living In A Small Town
In February 2022 my best friend and I drove across this wild country. We followed a blizzard and stayed just enough behind it to make it from Burbank California all the way to Fairfield Iowa in four days. Yes, we took our time. Afraid to drive at night in the snow and escorting a big dog slowed our trip significantly. No complaints from Nelly, Marley, nor me .
I have so much to say about the drive and the move and the goodbyes and the excitement of the future I believed I was heading into. When I landed in Iowa I KNEW I was going through the biggest transition of my life. What I didn’t know then was the transition would be even bigger.
A mere five months later I be would locked out of my new business and evicted from my new home. Trust me friends - there will be more on that later.
Today I simply want to share the joy felt during the few months I lived in a town of 10,000 - all of the accomplishments I made with the Sanctuary Spa, all the friends made in this town.
I joined the local Chamber of Commerce the first month, connecting with so many other business owners. I hosted a gubernatorial candidate - who is now running against the current governor of Iowa - GO DEIDRE! I redesigned the entire spa and grew the business 560% in just three months. I GREW THE BUSINESS 560%! Yes. I printed out the reports to scrapbook.
While I would LOVE to take all the credit, I cannot. The credit goes to the people of Fairfield. They came, they saw, they talked, they returned. On repeat. I have never met people - specifically women - like I have met in Iowa. Fighters, life givers, truth tellers, hearts-full-of-gold-and-grit and so much more. I was taught how to shoot a gun by my very liberal counterpart, my eyebrows done better here than by the highest priced salon in Los Angeles, and my Pilates teacher corrected my posture and fixed the chronic pain I had been living with for the last three years. The people in this town lift you up - Ms. Margie believed in me so much she put me on her radio show not once, not twice but thrice!
One of my favorite memories was watching the men from Pella Signage install the sign I spent months working to design. I remember this feeling of finally seeing my vision come to life. The only other witness was the gas lady. She laughed with me and giggled uncomfortably when I shed a few tears. There is nothing like sweat equity turning into financial gain to give a girl a confidence boost she never knew she needed.
Fairfield Iowa is a special place. I have so many memories from the short time I lived here and I will share more of them later. But for now - just for now, I have to feel the gratitude of knowing this place is here, that I thrived and Nelly found peace in a bigger home and I connected with community in a way I forgot was possible.
Someone said to me the other day “transitions can be hard, can’t they” and the craziest thing is - in that moment I realized I didn’t even think that I was going through one. That word - transition - never crossed my mind. I considered moving to Iowa a transition but for some reason not moving back to LA.
What I’ve come to ponder since that comment is that maybe this is it.
Maybe this is THE transition. LA to Iowa to LA and everything in between. Pre-Iowa Josie would thought spiral over "well is this it is this the end?" "Is the transition FINALLY OVER? CAN I PLEASE RELAX NOW?" But maybe - and I’ll leave y’all with this - maybe learning to relax in these transitions is the only point in life. One day, we will end up in the same place. Maybe - if we lead decent lives and are lucky - we can look back and remember how gracefully we handled the moments that hurt us the most.
“What once was, never really was once.”
To see more photos of my time in Fairfield - click here.