If We Could Live Anywhere...

It wasn’t long ago that I read a travel blog where the writer considered the places they’d travel if money were no object. It is a question I will ask myself from time to time; what would you do if money were no object? However, reality is as it is and money is an object to be considered. Still, I do permit myself to think these thoughts, and on occasion, some of these flights of fancy become my reality.

Similar to this is pondering the question, where would you live if you could live anywhere you would like? Oh, how this question causes my mind and imagine to race. My wife and I started this conversation again this past Friday while waiting for an appointment and it has continued through the weekend. It has not always been an easy question to answer. I have had several places that have intrigued me throughout the years. 

Considering the question now, I find it easy to answer, I would live in England! Now before my family and friends jump to any conclusions, there are no plans underway in which we pull up stakes and move back across the Atlantic. I am not saying it could never happen either. No, right now I am simply indulging a few thoughts of someplace other than here. 

My wife and I lived in Nuneaton.  Nuneaton is a town located in Warwickshire in the area of the United Kingdom collectively known as The Midlands. Most people have never heard of Nuneaton or have no idea where to find Nuneaton. In trying to tell friends we would simply say, “It is in the same county as Stratford-upon-Avon” and hope that people would know that Stratford was Shakespeare’s birthplace. We could also add another historical reference by saying we lived on the Watling Street; an old Roman road. 

Our life in England harkens back to a simpler easier time. We were doing what we were meant to be doing*. Life was slower there than it is here and the things that tend to complicate life was an ocean away. Combining fewer distractions with a singular purpose, residing in a country that captured my imagination years earlier, meant that I found myself in one of the happiest times of my life. It wasn’t a perfect time but it was a very happy time. Missing my family was that one grain of imperfection. It is missing people that makes things toughest. 

When I allow myself to ask “what if”, I think I’d like to be back where we were, in The Midlands. It is quiet and peaceful. We have friends there and in nearby villages and towns. In a sense, it would be like going home and we could be pick up where we left off with several friends.  

Life there would be much as was before. We would walk out our front door and in fifteen minutes be in town for market day. My wife loves market day and it gives me the chance to stop in at the WH Smith on Queen’s Road and purchase a book or two. We would walk out our front door and in five minutes be on a greenway through the countryside. Just like before we would walk as far as a canal side pub for tea. A lack of television means that we’d spend our evenings tucked away in our flat listening to music, reading, writing, or perhaps we’d find our way out and visit with friends. This is something we can do here too, but there we do not have much of a choice.

Every two to three months we’d make our way down to London. It is what we did then, and what we’d do in our present “what if”. We never had much money then so we found the free or inexpensive things to do. Though we may be slightly better off now we would still do many of the same things. We would visit the National Gallery or the British Museum. We’d would find a small cafe table in the lower-level courtyard at Covent Garden and share a cheese plate with a glass of red or white wine. A classical quartet would be playing in the background and sometimes two opera singers will sing the Flower Duet. Sometimes I will find a table in the back room of the Angel and Crown and pull out my journal and write for hours. London had that sort of creative impact on me. What I write is not important but it is important that I write. Whether we make our way back to live, or only to visit, these things we will still find time to do.

England is rich in history and literature. It is also rich in offering a variety of places to visit in country. We loved weekends in Stratford strolling along the River Avon or taking in a performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A quick meal at the Dirty Duck is also a treat. We’ve visited the haunts of some of our favorite writers, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien while at Oxford. We have a favorite bed and breakfast overlooking the cliffs at Port Isaac in Cornwall. We’ve gone across the moors in Devon and climbed the Glastonbury Tor. I’ve looked out over Dozmary Pool on the Bodmin Moor, legendary home of the Lady of the Lake and the sword Excalibur. We’ve walked along Lake Windemere in the Lake District and have stood atop the white chalk cliffs of Dover and waved at France. These things, and more, are a part of the “what if”.

We love to travel. If we lived in England again, and hoping that we would be able to afford it, we’d make time to travel over to the Continent more often. There I would indulge my love for Paris. We’d finally make that trip to Germany so that Gerrie can visit the land her family came from. We’d go back to Switzerland, perhaps catch up with a few old friends, and if I can, I’d finally take the journey to Kleine Scheidegg and spend a few hours looking at the Eiger. Another long weekend may find us in Brussels or perhaps in Vienna for the opera. Then maybe one day we’d find ourselves back in Rome, and this time we’d pay the price of admission and stroll through the Forums and visit the Sistine Chapel.

There is a lot we would do if...

Gerrie and I both have a wonderful sense of wanderlust. While living in the present we will often think about the future. Much of this is but dream, but it is shared dream of two people answering a question from the other. It is two people who often comment on how much they miss living in England. It is two people wondering what to do and where to go should the correct set of circumstances occur that give them the opportunity to move back to Europe. It happened before. There is no reason to believe it could not happen again. 

Tolkien’s prequel to the Lord of the Rings is commonly known as The Hobbit. The expanded title is The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. As for the There and Back Again, I wonder if that could be the title of an upcoming chapter in our book of life.

Greg

* A preview of what is to come next week; I will share what got us to England in the first place. It is part of our spiritual journey!