Welcome Home, Vermont!

Signs that I am living in the right place:

• I am driving us home from Boston, and as we enter Vermont, I notice the traffic on the highway becoming increasingly normal, at least to me. Cars stay to the right, pass on the left, and generally behave. I sigh deeply, and feel at ease.
• I come back from being gone for the weekend, and notice 2 mouse poops on the kitchen counter. I think, Only 2! Life is good! 
• While visiting Boston, I insist on going for a 2 mile run in the freak snowstorm that appeared. I take an extra long time enjoying the giant snowflakes careen onto the frozen lake I am circling. When I get back, my mother tells me to take her cell phone next time because I was so long out in the snow.
• My partner and I argue over who gets to go up the hill in the dark with the giant toboggan to get the next load of wood for the stove. We both want to do it. 
• We arrive at a restaurant at 5:30 for dinner. The restaurant is pleasantly crowded with families and couples. Early dinner is normal here.
• My son and I come out of the restaurant, in the dark. It is snowing out. We decide to play chase down the street-- without coats or hats on. 
• Looking at the snowy road, I calculate in my head the likelihood I will run tonight, based not on the road, but on the gusting wind around the house.
• We bustle into our cool house and I am excited, as well as my partner and son, to crowd around the wood stove and start the fire.
• Looking at the weather for the coming week, I marvel and am excited to wander out in -16 weather, and imagine the trips we can make during this next cold snap coming to our shores.

It's good to look for, and find confirmation for this risk and lifestyle we are embracing. An aunt asked recently, So, can you take the winter here? as we sat around a roast chicken supper. I answered, easily, Yes, why yes I can. I talk to folks a lot about my fear of isolation, but the truth is I have folks to talk to about it, and the shared commitment to getting through this season, coupled with the sense of discovery of each day here, is helping me feel right at home, here in Vermont.