A Dear Green Place

There is enough sunshine in this world for everyone…. even if you live in Scotland.

I grew up in Glasgow the largest city in Scotland known as the Dear Green Place. Glasgow is an amazing city with friendly people, world famous architecture, and a famous nightlife. It was named in the Top 10 Cities in the world list and Nike have even created trainers inspired by this city.

However, when you’ve lived in a place your whole life the novelty runs out and it’s easy to get sucked into the negatives. The weather in Glasgow can get you down. It rains a lot here. If you have lived here or even visited you’d probably think of it more of as a dreary grey place rather than green.

Like a lot of people, I thought there were bigger and better things for me elsewhere in the world. So, I decided to travel as much as I could when I was younger. I spent eight weeks traveling Latin America. I loved every minute of it. I met lots of different people, new places and cultures.

I learned a lot about myself, gained new confidence, and realised somewhat of what I wanted in life. The most important thing I learned, however, was that even though human beings may differ in culture and tradition, we have so much in common no matter where we are from. Most of us are just trying to get by in life, we crave community, and we love our families. It made me realise that I already had everything that I needed. Sure, there were still things I wanted, however, I had the tools and foundations to help achieve my goals.

It’s a common story. Man searches the four corners of the world looking for something only to realise everything he needed was back where he started. And it can be our metaphor for our lives. It may feel sometimes that our circumstances are holding us back. However, if we can accept where we are it is then a lot easier to move forward in life.

The grass isn’t always greener over our neighbour’s garden. In fact, if you take a closer look at your circumstances, you might just find you’re already living in a Dear Green Place.