Live in a Place That Makes You Happy
ChickieNob and I walk in the afternoon to first-person virtual walking videos while we listen to audiobooks. Sometimes my mind wanders as I consider whether I want to live there. How would I feel if I lived in Knaresborough, UK? If I woke up to see the river and then got breakfast in the little cafe we pass along the walk. Or Paris? Or Mykonos? What would it be like to live in any of these places?
There are so many things in life you can’t control. You may not get the family you want, the job you want, or the opportunities you want. But choosing where you live — not the exact place but the general location — feels like it could have a big change in how you feel about life.
My state makes me happy. I want to live closer to water, but the fact that we can get to the river, bay, or ocean quickly makes me happy.
7 comments
This is such a timely post for me, thank you Mel! Hawaii is calling to me. I like our life here in the continental US but have started dreaming of moving there with our family. My husband laughed off the first job listing I emailed him in April but realized I was serious in May. We have different time horizons (me – 2023, him – in a decade). I would also embrace a move to a state where people who make climate-related moves are heading (husband’s friend left Lake Tahoe during wildfires to move near a Vermont lake). But I haven’t identified if my motive for Hawaii is to look for a new start or to live somewhere amazing.
I subscribe to this sentiment 100%. When I was creating a new life for myself (because the one I had planned didn’t work out), I started with deciding where I wanted to live. My thinking was that I don’t really like to travel so I should live somewhere I want to be.
I’m an academic so living where I want would mean a significant career change. Right now I love my career enough to offset not loving where I live but it still stinks to have to make that trade-off.
I think about this every day. If only I didn’t need to work. I get closer to quitting without anything lined up all the time.
I love this. It’s definitely a privilege to get to choose where you live, but I am in that camp where I love my home. The deck is such a peaceful place where I can hear birdsong and watch sunsets and it makes my home feel like a vacation, even when I can’t take one. I would love to be closer to the ocean someday, or somewhere like Vermont, but for now… this is where I love to live.
How do you listen to walking videos of faraway places while listening to an audio book? I think I would like of do the former but not the latter. Where can I find them? Thanks!
I can’t decide if I should move eventually, because I can’t decide where I would want to live. It’s either the weather or the politics or the cost of living that makes me just want to stay where I am. Sigh…