I'm in the country for the summer - and by country I mean the rural rolling hills of Connecticut as opposed to the bustling busy city streets of Brooklyn. I love it here, the quiet, the open windows and fresh air, the dip in evening temperature that doesn't require AC. Right now I'm listening to owls "talk" to each other - my friend's mom says it's their mating call, I'm gonna go with it. It's peaceful here, and the TV is downstairs, where I only go to do laundry and turn off the lights in the kid's bedroom. I haven't watched one lick of anything in three weeks - not The Real Housewives of any city or even the news. I have no idea what's happening out there, unless Will tells me about it and quite frankly, I'm glad I don't know about it. I'm in my happy place - where kids roam free with their friends, where I can buy fresh veggies from the farm guy up the road on the honor system, where I can forget all about what's happening in the real world even if it is only for a few weeks.
It's funny being here - It takes me 10 months of city build up to look forward to getting here - and 2 months of living here to want to go back. Home for me is wherever my family is, except in the summer my family is split up because Will travels to NYC on Monday to go to work and returns back to us in CT on Friday. That's the hard part, being away from him for days at a time. I know in my gut that this is the right thing for our children, having a place where they can exercise their independence, and experience how to live without the confines of constant watch. Wyatt particularly loves it here - as he should - the kids are all kind and polite, they're considerate of his little brother, they travel in packs, they order ice cream from the snack shack and jump off the rocks into the lake. Our summers have become something resembling a Norman Rockwell painting, or at least that's how I'm interpreting them. Idyllic, sweet, unblemished. My mother wonders why we don't move here full time, we have space, friends, a great life here...my older son wonders the same thing. And yet, while I love it so much here, I don't love it enough to commit to it. I miss my city. I miss my friends. I miss the noise and the diversity. I miss home, and truthfully, our bed in Brooklyn is way better than our bed in CT - just sayin'.
I'm not wishing summer away, I'm welcoming it with open arms. The opportunity to spend afternoons in the late sun with my boys. The BBQ's, the lake...it's all great stuff, there's just one thing missing - my heart, that's back in Brooklyn, but it will be here on Friday for a few days at least.