A Country Mouse (Perhaps)

As a young woman nearing her mid-twenties (yikes!), I have been thinking about where I want to live -- now and more permanently. From the many times I pondered about where to place my life (NYC, Washington D.C, San Francisco, North Carolina, Northern Virginia, Colorado) , I always come back to the country. The essence of my heart lies in rural 'scapes. I am at most myself walking down a quiet dirt road, smelling the fading scents of summer mixing with the aged aroma of the coming autumn. I love when the trees curve into each other (as in the photo above), creating an arch with their leaning branches. You feel as though you are walking through a wild cathedral. The country quiet and scene give such peace. The country is never boring but rather a place where I can think most clearly. I was born and raised in the country and I know that I will make my way back there someday.

All this praise of the rural aside, I do acknowledge my intrigue of the romance and haunting mystique of city life. At times, I yearn to live in massive, old-fashioned city like New York City or Chicago -- to be encapsulated by the concrete towers, unable to avoid the throngs of people and buildings. Urban systems trap the heat, the smells, the excitement -- you feel thick and wholly in it. I'm not exactly sure what it is but there times, while walking through the center of a city, where I feel this energy and purpose running through me. Millions of microcosms form in urban centers, dispelling tantalizing art, music, writing. One's philosophy is fed constantly with the intellectual inspiration. Though mention of urban jungle is cliché, I love the tangled vibrancy it connotes. The picture below is a veritable jungle, a coexistence of, or perhaps a warfare between the natural and the artificial. Maybe it suggests the possibility of a dual life -- the best of both worlds. Or, it's merely an idea that can never fully satisfy either locale, and one must choose to be either a country mouse or one of the city.

What about you: Are you a country mouse or a city mouse?

Image found here and here.