What I Thought I Would Miss

Between me and you, I didn't want to move.  I fought it for years.  I wasn't exactly in love  with my house but I loved that I have a picture of my firstborns first day of school in that driveway and that I carried my newborn second son through it's doors.  I loved being so close to work.  I loved not having neighbors.  And I loved the country.   When we told a few of our friends that we were buying a house they said, "Are you crazy?" And I started to think that we were.  I won't bore you with our back and forth conversations on why we should or shouldn't move.  And how I was eventually persuaded that yes, this was a good decision.  But even when I gave in....I had my doubts.  I mean, just look at the view from my old kitchen window.

 I loved seeing cows.  I didn't even mind the faint scent that they brought through my windows in the summertime.  They are beautiful, gentle creatures.

 I loved the smell of freshly baled hay. And the sounds of tractors and the frogs from the little ponds croaking at night and the goats that lived down the hill.  And the star filled sky at night, without the distraction of city lights. 

I thought I would feel sad when I drove by my old house on my way to work everyday.  Which, by the way, is only a ten minute drive. I thought I would long to be living there again.   But I don't.  And I'm not exactly sure why.  Maybe it's because I still get to enjoy the beauty of the country.  I still get to smell the smells and hear the sounds and see the change the seasons make on all that open space.  I work out there four days a week and walk everyday I am there for two miles on the roads around my house.

 I think I have realized that it's not really where you are.  It's who you are with that makes a home a home.  And you can be happy anywhere really.  In a tiny apartment in the city or in a giant farmhouse in the country.  Besides that...my view from my kitchen window isn't to shabby now.  This was taken in the fall of course.  These days those trees are looking a little bare.

 And the view from the inside is warm and cozy. And it's a good place to be.