We deeply wanted to…

Downsize while upsizing the daily experience of our lives. Experiences over everything.

Be around art so easily or walk by it in the architecture that makes up the city.

Buy our groceries every couple days (one of our favorite things while living in Amsterdam).

Trade in the car(s) for traveling within a/the country by train — and lots of walking…

Experience different cultures.

Live in a city where everything we needed was within a 5-15 minute walk (or a 45 minute walk… walking).

Travel easily and each weekend if that’s what we had the time and desire for.

Find comfort in new ways…

Feel anonymous (for a while), but make new friends from diverse backgrounds. Community & relationships ~ in the end, it’s what makes an experience an experience. People.

Feel a little lost.
Feel a lot found.

Feel free…

It’s less that we didn’t love our life in our previous city because we LOVE life wherever it’s been lived (you make it that way). [I’ve always said to Josh “You could put me on a plane, blindfold me and drop me in a new city to live and I’d make it a happy life.”]

But we simply *liked* certain parts of daily living in the U.S. less and less the last handful of years. I’m aware, too, that once you’ve lived outside at least once, you crave what that brought or brings your soul (exploration, student over expert, curiosity etc…).

It’s all true.

But it’s really this: experiences over everything. Suits and soothes most sizes ~ all souls.