So Here We Are...

We've done it. The husband and I have taken the plunge and left city life for life on Dartmoor. I suppose it would have been easy to have fooled ourselves that village life would be a 1930's rural idyll, where everyone uses wicker baskets to collect their bread and the butcher's boy wraps up your sausages in brown paper. It would have been even easier to chicken out altogether and believe the scare stories that there would be nobody our own age in the village, or that we wouldn't be able to cope without the full quota of shops. But this is not the 1930s, nor a city-dweller's worst nightmare. It is just another, different way of living.

It all comes down to a question of priority. As I walked through the quiet lanes on Friday, climbing up on to an iron age hill fort, looking across amazing countryside to see church towers nestling in the valleys and castles poking out of the trees, I wasn't that worried that it is a bit of a distance to the nearest Tesco. In the morning, when the sunlight pokes its way through the mist on to the sparkling frost on the hills beyond our window, I don't mind that we have to drive a few miles to get petrol.

I am not naive enough to think that when we are snowed-in and have to rely on neighbours in their landrovers to bring us supplies, I won't long for gritted roads and nearby amenities. We may be getting deliciously used to the permanent smell of bonfires, crisp air and crystal clear tap water, but it may take longer to get used to having just a handful of small stores within walking distance (although to be fair they do provide all the essentials to survive!). There may be moments of weakness where we would value convenience over beauty and I know I will miss friends from the city more, not less as time goes on. But if we never did anything that wasn't perfect then we would never do anything at all.

God has provided everything we could want. Not just everything we need, but all the extras as well: friendly people close to our age, neighbours who bring homemade goodies round and explain the complex recycling system, a welcoming church and views to get lost in. Most importantly, He has given us a sense of peace and belonging. He meant us to come here and if we ever doubted it, we were fools. Thank God that He knows best!