City Life vs. Country Life

I knew it was time for me to move to the country when I started spending all of my free time leaving San Francisco to sit amongst the redwoods. I felt like I couldn’t fully relax in the city anymore.

You see, where we live carries its own energy, and no matter how curated and clear the energy in our home is, we are so affected by where we live, and if your own energetic field doesn’t feel in harmony with the area in which you live, then you’re kinda screwed.

So many people – friends and readers and clients – have reached out asking how our transition has been from city living in San Francisco (before that we lived in Manhattan) to Medfield, MA, a sweet suburban town 40 minutes southwest of Boston. I’m taking some time today to share how it’s been, in case you’ve been considering a similar move for your family and feel nervous about leaving the convenience and coolness of city life.

Here are the questions I get asked most often…

Do you miss having everything at your fingertips?

Cooking almost every meal has been much easier than I thought. We keep it simple and do a lot of rice bowls with greens, eggs, sauerkraut, and avocado. We had to get used to keeping the fridge really well stocked, but after a few weeks of trial and error, we adjusted. Jonathan and I spent a lot of time thinking about what we would miss the most about San Francisco, and it was the food, the coffee, and wine country. So we get Four Barrel coffee shipped to us every week from San Francisco (we tried every brand in Boston and nothing came close), we kept our memberships at our favorite wineries in Sonoma and get regular shipments, we throw dinner parties and cook nice meals, and we try to get into Boston to a nice restaurant from time to time (we’ve been doing this less since being pregnant because I want to go to bed at 8:30 most nights). Medfield also has a great green juice place, 3 solid restaurants, and a great little market. We order all of our groceries through Instacart and our household items through Amazon as part of my goal to have an errandless life.  

Are you meeting like-minded people?

YES! Whenever I told people in San Francisco that I was moving to Massachusetts to start hosting workshops around Earth-Based Spirituality and the Divine Feminine, they were like, “Good luck with that… people are so uptight there.” And then I hosted a Full Moon Circle, and 70 women came… and we’ve had the same size crowd for all of my following workshops! The Woo Woos are alive and well in Massachusetts. Not to mention every woman I’ve met in my town is insanely friendly, down-to-earth, very smart, and open-minded. I’ve heard that other towns in the area have slightly different cultures, and we got a sense of that as we were looking at houses. We made an effort to meet a handful of people in each town and ask them about what they did for fun, if they had an easy time making friends, and if there’s a sense of competition. Living in a town lends itself to a strong sense of community I never felt living in a city. I love that it’s not weird to talk to someone in the grocery store or introduce myself in line to get a smoothie. I feel like the larger the population, the more people keep to themselves.

How is it living in nature?

It’s amazing. My whole system feels so relaxed. I love being surrounded by trees and animals. Sinking my toes into the dirt helps me feel so grounded. Being able to open our door and play outside with the kids, go for a walk in the woods, or go sledding is HUGE. With Marshall’s energy, we were leaving the house twice a day to give him the space to run to around. Packing up the diaper bag, loading everyone in the stroller or the car was so exhausting. Now we don’t have to leave the house if we don’t want to; there’s plenty of space to get our energy out. And watching the kids create games with sticks and mud feels so much better to me than going to the playground every chance we got.  

In short, life just feels easier, simpler, but still with the necessary conveniences and community that I need to flourish. Granted, we don’t live in upstate Vermont, but that’s what we love about Massachusetts so much – you get the feel of being in the country while still being close to Boston, and you’re surrounded by people who all came from big cities to raise their families.

So if you’re thinking about making the move, it takes a leap of faith, but listen to your heart and what your body and soul are really longing for. Sometimes we have to make big moves to feel truly settled. And when you feel settled, it’s so much easier to soar.

I’d love to know in the comments below if you’re thinking about moving to the country? What are your fears? What are you most excited about?

Love,
Sarah

Events at the Moon Lodge!

Yoga Every Wednesday from 9:30am-10:30am.
Get details here.

Vision Board Workshop hosted by Nicole Lewis on Sunday, January 28th, 1-4pm.
Sign up here: https://visionboardjan282018.eventbrite.com.