We moved to the country roughly four years ago. I lived in the city for most of my life and I had enough of the people, the traffic and all the disrespectful cashiers and stressed out people I had come in contact with. It was noisy and sometimes scary. Even in your home you could never truly get peace from the world surrounding you.

I moved to a small town where the nearest store was at least 15 miles away. I was a shopaholic. To live this far away from a store would certainly throw me in a depressive tailspin. My teenage daughter also spread her disdain joking that Mayberry had never seen a 7-11. Where would she get her energy drinks?

One beautiful fall day we were called to the new house to close the deal. The drive was long and hard. The kids fought and whined the entire hour it took to get there. I began to think “What have I done?”

As I passed the corn fields and the smell of the honeysuckle blooms hit me. Nothing I had ever smelled in Bath and Body works had come close to the freshness in the air here.

We pulled into the drive of our new home and the Realtor of course wasn’t on time. After all everything moves slower in the country. This includes the tractor I followed down two rural roads to get to my driveway.

I sat on the porch and inhaled the fall breeze as it rustled through the tress. The only sounds I heard were the birds chirping, the wind through the trees, maybe an occasional frog in the distance or a cow who spread his disdain over my presence. There were no other sounds. No cars honking, no loud music shaking my windows, no smelly exhaust fumes to choke on. Just pure silence with the exception of the kids fighting over their domain in the backyard. My son didn’t need his inhaler one time!

Since then I have never looked back. I have learned so many lessons here. The peace I have experienced I could have never found in any stores. My children get exited over the frogs they chase on the lazy summer nights. We make s’mores over a campfire in our backyard. When they come home from school they rush outside to see what they missed. No longer are they glued to the television and video games. All the children are now honor students.

Perhaps the best thing of this wildly unpredictable wilderness is the deer. They can be in the woods one minute and in front of your car the next. The entire family gathers to see how many fawns gather around the doe. When a raccoon crosses the road we learned he watches his whole family cross before bringing up the rear. They all live in harmony here. Except maybe the stray possum who runs in front of your car because he forgot his nut on the other side. I have yet to figure that one out.

When life gets too hard we simply sit outside on the front porch and mull over solutions to the minuscule problems we face here.

There are old-fashioned values, vacation Bible school and harvest time in the fall. I realize everyday the smartest thing I have ever done was move to the country. In fact I dread going to the city even for groceries. Moving to the country was definitely the best decision I have ever made.