Jess Howard chose life in a small town to experience the world fresh again.
“Hey Jess, I saw you running yesterday. What can I do for you?”
With that my life in a small town is summed up in the chair of my doctor’s office. And there is not another town I would rather raise my children in.
I was raised in the city. After all four of my children were born, I moved to the country seeking out a place where they could be kids for every possible second, where I could shelter them from the economic trappings of urban life and, in turn, I could see the world new and fresh again.
Our rural adventure has included owning several dozen chickens, raising and eating our own holiday turkey, witnessing the birth of a calf, and sightings of bears and cougars, deer on a daily basis. We have friends who are dairy farmers, web designers, tree fallers, veterinarians, lawyers, chefs and gardeners, and everything in between.
Many things are the same as the city, except that most people who live here have chosen to for reasons similar to ours. They are people looking for a slower lifestyle, living a life that honours their community, eating foods that are local and supporting independent businesses.
The truly magical part about living in a small town though isn’t the places and things — it’s the people.
As time passes you come to realize that this truly is the place where everybody knows your name, or your children’s names. That you will always know what your children are doing. That it’s going to be pretty hard for them to get in too much trouble as they become teenagers because someone will always see them and tell you.
You will see that there is a safety here in this little community and that your kids get to experience what life was like when you were a child. They will get to walk to the store with friends, hang out at the beach, do all those simple and magical childhood things that kids in the city don’t get to do because of real and imagined fears.
I work right in the village in a small restaurant that caters to the locals. I have so many regular customers that most nights I can bring drinks to all my tables without even asking them what they want. Because I already know.
There is so much comfort in the familiar.
Photo Credit
“Learn From The Way The Wild Flowers Grow. They Do Not Work Or Spin” Mike_tn @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
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