Taking Time, Making Time
Posted on | August 27, 2009 | 4 Comments
Having just returned from a week away on holiday, our first one in several years, I stumbled across an article from the UK in The Guardian that touches on several ‘emerging themes’ that I have noticed in my own life in the last couple of years. The author, in an excerpt from an upcoming book, was explaining how intentions of becoming more creative via moving to the country don’t always manifest the way you intend them to.
Cathy Rogers wrote, “Contrary to our expectations when we set off like snails four years ago, we feel much more creative now we are back. We had imagined that in our other-worldly Italian life, with no obligations and plenty of time on our side, we would enjoy the most creative time of our lives. We thought we would get down to personal improvement projects planned for years, our evenings filled with learning to gilt broken picture frames, reading Dante in the original, playing the piano. Instead we found nothing so unmotivating as silence and hours. Rather, humans are at their most creative when they have the least time to be.”
Honest admission, I have had moments of those same thoughts since we ‘escaped’ from our urban life in Melbourne and moved to the country for ‘the good life’ complete with a never-ending set of marvelous sunsets on our seven and one half acres.
Alongside the finish-the-next-book theme, some of my best intentions have been to put paint to canvas once again and there are a stack of stretched canvases sitting out in my studio awaiting some interaction from me. I do remember that I was actually working on several paintings at once when we lived in busy-busy Melbourne and I was writing a book during that period as well.
Is it simply what Rogers states — that some of us thrive better in bustling conditions or work more efficiently when we have a deadline? Or does that only apply to those of us who have been programmed by working in a field where a deadline was a distinct facet of the job (journalism and design in my own case).
Is the slowed-down-semi-retired state of mind not actually all that it’s cracked up to be and a great many of us need that daily and weekly set of tangible challenges to keep us on our toes?
And is the idea of rural bliss simply that for many of us who have lived cheek-to-jowl with neighbours and noise for all of our adult lives — an idea that is perfume-filled with potential but manure-filled upon closer examination?
During our two and a half years living the village life, we have had moments of great joy and extreme anxiety. We’ve seen several couples move here, start up businesses, and then move back to Melbourne for similar reasons. And just like the author of The Guardian article, they too are happier in their very urban environment without all of the pretty, rolling hills and extremely silent nights.
I suppose what I would really like is a dual-track option — a slick urban city apartment for the part-of-the-time when I crave crowds, getting everywhere on foot instead of by car, exotic food, and a culture fix. And then we could still have the wee eco-cottage in the country for our peaceful and slower-paced primary track life.
The article that sent my brain into musing mode is at The end of our Italian dream and is certainly worth a peruse if you are contemplating changing your own lifestyle rather drastically.
Tags: country lifestyle > expat > life change > lifestyle > overseas business > overseas move > time > urban lifestyle > urban vs country
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4 Responses to “Taking Time, Making Time”
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Deborah Harmes, Ph.D.
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August 27th, 2009 @ 3:14 PM
Sometimes it’s more about where you dont want to be. I feel the anxiety of the cities. Sometimes I think my empathy radar picks up on the “rush” of city life and it wears me out.
I need to smell the earth and shut myself off to be creative. A trip to the city can be stimulating and inspiring but I love where I live.
August 27th, 2009 @ 3:28 PM
I’m a bit of both actually. The zoom-zoom makes me tired after awhile, but I find that I miss the immediacy of being places quickly instead of the 3-4 hour round trip driving session just to go to a museum with a fabulous exhibit.
You are the OTHER kind of artist, Kate — the kind that thrives on the scent of the garden and the rustling of the trees. I always thought I WAS like that until I recently decided to be quite honest with myself.
I posted the article because, just like the London-to-Italy-and-back woman, I think that there are rather a lot of us who dream of how fab life would be in the rural countryside, but perhaps we are so ingrained with our ‘city-ness’ that it isn’t always a good fit once we actually get here.
Isn’t it wonderful that, for the most part, we have choices in our lives about where to be and how to live!
August 31st, 2009 @ 12:15 PM
I finally had a chance to read the article by the London couple and can so relate to parts of it. Most city people’s dreams of country life are pure fantasy. For one thing, it’s a lot of hard physical labor to maintain a rural lifestyle. It’s my feeling, however, that much of the “convenience” of city life is built on an unsustainable foundation (cheap energy, complex systems functioning, empire being maintained, etc.) so our move was an effort to find a life that WAS sustainable and more earth friendly.
When we moved to the semi-rural community we currently live in, many of the locals had reactions similar to that of the Italian natives in that woman’s piece…”What the hell are you doing here? You gave up jobs in the city, fine restaurants, culture and living next to the Pacific Ocean in one of the most beautiful and benign climates in the world to move here? You must be crazy.” Sometimes we wonder if we ARE crazy.
The most challenging part of our move to the country was, IMO, the lack of culture and the difficulty dealing with the maddeningly close-minded people that tend to inhabit small towns. Anyone with any talent, drive, or creativity (including our kids) pretty much gets out of Dodge ASAP. Most city dwellers are closed minded/asleep as well but with a large enough population, you can usually surround yourself with a critical mass of friends who are interesting, creative, intelligent and compatible with one’s sensibilities.
I seem to be so sensitive to the energy fields of my environment that I was ground down by the psychic atmosphere of the city but even this small town we’re in feels oppressive at times. Whenever we take a day or two to spend at our country home (nearest neighbors are pretty much a kilometer away in all directions), it’s like coming up for air. The silence, stillness and beauty are invigorating.
OTOH, I do miss the art and live entertainment that one finds in an urban environment. If it weren’t for the internet, I’d be JONESin’ for a culture fix every week or so.
On the whole, given the times we’re in, I think I’d rather live in a small town and have the opportunity to escape to the city for occasional culture or to our country retreat for psychic peace as opposed to living in the city and trying to plan getaways that allow me to recover from that environment. To each their own.
August 31st, 2009 @ 3:17 PM
You’ve added some good thoughts to the mix on this, Greg. I have to admit that what I would love is TWO residences — one in the city and one in the country. That way I could have the best of both worlds!
The vibratory energy of a large mass of people in a huge city such as Melbourne, which is fast approaching the 5 million population point, is definitely something to be considered if you are sensitive to that. And I had moments while living and writing in London when I just wanted to be anywhere else but there because of the non-stop traffic sounds in Chelsea. It would have helped if the windows had been double-glazed for sound-proofing. (grin!)
I’ve noticed over the years that there is an interesting divide amongst artists and writers and film makers. Some of them cannot be productive in any kind of atmosphere OTHER than the urban environment — and others would go completely nutso if they had to hear sounds other than the swishing of the trees and the birdsong as they created their books or paintings or whatever.
As I said to Kate — isn’t choice a wonderful thing! Thanks for your own comments on the subject, Greg.