City life

Lots of people seem curious about whether I miss living on a farm now that I have moved to the city. I’ve said to all who have asked about the move from a farm to the city that love it in all the ways I thought and at least 10 ways I didn’t imagine.

Some of the things I thought I would love that are just as good as I imagined:

• Lots of opportunities to walk. We walk so much that we ended up selling one of our cars (and getting a second e-bike)
• No shortage of things to do – library, coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, shows, bars. And all of it walkable (see point 1).
• More free time since my overall footprint is a lot smaller chore time is proportionally less and that means more time to read, listen to music and go do things (see point 2).

But there are a few things I love as much or more that I didn’t anticipate:

• Because we walk and bike so much we’ve gotten to know the neighborhood and, more importantly the neighbors, much better than we would have if we had to drive everywhere. The random encounter with a new neighbor when we walk the dog. The chat with another biker while you wait at a stop light. The alley you’d never drive down with your car that lets you see a whole new angle of the city.
• Because there is so much to do, I feel less pressure to have big plans – the daily flow feels a lot more organic. I am doing most things because I really want to be doing them in the , not because I planned to do them 2 weeks ago, drove a long way and now have to do them because of plans and distance.
• Since there is more free time, I am able to better balance between my need to be “out in the world, experiencing it” and “saying at rest, restoring myself”. I was worried about so many things being so near by resulting in a sort of burn out – too much, too fast. What I didn’t count on was all the extra free time that has let me have my cake and eat it too.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t expect to feel so settled so quickly. I think I assumed the city would feel like a constant state of doing — loud, stimulating, relentless. What I found instead was more like permission. Permission to wander without a destination, to say yes on a Tuesday, to let the day shape itself.

I don’t miss the farm. But I’m grateful to it — for what it asked of me, for what it showed me about myself. The patience, the self-sufficiency, the comfort with quiet. Those things didn’t stay behind when I moved. They came with me, and honestly, they might be exactly why the city works as well as it does for me.