All right this picture isn’t exactly of my backyard, but it is only a thirty minute drive to get to this location on the side of the Columbia river, so I consider it my backyard. The Columbia, the mountains, the hiking paths, the ski runs, the lakes; I consider all of these to be a part of my “location environment”: the broad area where I live that has a direct affect on how I live.
I need to be IN nature to be truly happy. I didn’t fully realize this until Ashlea and I packed up and moved out of the big city to Rossland, BC. Living in Calgary, nature was always close to us, but we still lived IN the city. It turns out close doesn’t work for me, I need to live in nature, not near it.
Rossland and the surrounding area are the biggest space in my personal geography, but this space defines so much of who I am, how I live, and really provides the overall context for all of the other spaces that make up my personal geography. Shifting my life from the city to the mountains is one of the most important changes I have made and this decision continues to affect all aspects of my personal geography.
I feel like I need to be IN nature too and just moved more into the city. But there is a tree covered running path and another path that runs along a canal with ducks. But to live in the mountains…that’s where I want to be…someday.
Deciding to live IN nature today instead of someday was one of the biggest decisions my wife and I made.
It hasn’t been easy all the time, and we still make a lot of sacrifices in some areas so that we can live where we do. Overall the decision has been 100% the best decision we have made. None of the sacrifices come close to how happy living where we do makes me.
I also remind myself that as tough as it has been everything is still moving forward in the right direction and soon we will live in our dream location and have all of the other parts in place as well.
Jeremie