Do you lead life or does life lead you? For most of us, this is a balanace. We take some leadership over what happens, and we also lend ourselves to the forces and opportunities around us. I thought of this today as I recognized that when it comes to home, I'm letting life lead me. I once thought I'd move from my current home, but lately it seems like I'll stay because the features this home offers for good living are great.
Our home is tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac which backs up to a river and conservation land--this is why I call our home, My Little Corner of the World. This tucked-away quality provides us with a beautiful natural setting and also the camaraderie of good neighbors too. Also, while we have nature nearby, we're also close to many amenities that make life easier--that's good too. And, it's an affordable home, one we bought a long time ago. Plus we have a lot of memories in this home too--30-years of memories that warm our days and welcome our children home. I've lived in this home longer than anywhere else in my life. That's hard to imagine as I often still think of home as my childhood home, a place I lived in for a steady 12 years and a few years here and there after that.
There is still a longing for me for more rural farmlands and coastal lands. In the past, when I've driven through the midwestern farmlands, Vermont hills, Maine coastal areas, and New Hampshire mountains, I could feel my heart beat a bit deeper--there is definitely a longing in me for this natural beauty. I suspect I'll fulfill this longing with visits to these beautiful places now and then in the years ahead. I'll be a grateful visitor rather than a resident.
To stay here means that I'll make a few changes. I want the spaces for visitors to be more comfortable and welcoming. Right now, those spaces are a little tight when it comes to my children's visits. I'd also like to repair the one aspect of this house that I don't like which is the lack of an indoor-outdoor flow. I'll save up for that change, and in the meantime explore a number of options to make that happen.
As I think about my many reasons for wanting to move from this house in the past, I realize that it had a lot more to do with my too-busy life than the house itself. I simply didn't have the time to invest in home in the ways I wanted to. Fortunately I have a bit more time now to do that.
So, with regard to home, I'm letting life lead me right now. It will be interesting to see where this journey takes me in the next ten years.