Ruby Slippers

It wasn't too long ago that I would have considered myself a city girl. Before the kids were born, I was fully immersed in the urban lifestyle. Double income, no kids, car-free apartment-living, lots of traffic noise, washing my blinds four times a year to get the black exhaust residue off...and loving it.

My transition to a small town has been painful at times. It took years for me to get over the loss of my City. There are still things I miss about it - shopping choices, advanced recycling programs - but with every year that goes by, I am introduced to more and more compelling compensations.

It could be that the virtues of small town life, in themselves, are of lesser importance than my emotional need to be happy...maybe I have just adapted to this slower pace, this smaller world, out of my own need for contentment.

I'm not sure it matters.

I've learned a lot in the last 9 years. Even more, I've learned a lot in the last five years. Conservation becomes ever more important to me. Careful consumption. Stewardship. Mindfulness.

The blog has been a big part of this learning process. There have been times I've been tempted to drop it - to stop this (increasingly occasional) conversation we have. Today, though, I was doing some small jobs around the house, and thinking about mending, and the things on my needles, and how I really should get the wheel outside and work on the Shetland, and I realised something.

I want to tell you about it. I like to talk funny nonsense, say sad things, and show you what I'm growing.

I would miss you if you were gone.

And if I'm going to live a humble life in a little place, and learn big things from it....I'd like to keep sharing.

So thank you, for being on the other end of this tin-can phone. I'll try to pick it up more often.

XO

Shannon