On Baggage, Emotional and Otherwise
An introspective essay on the journey towards lightness
WHEN WE first moved to the English countryside in 2018, it was late spring and we had just returned from a few years living in Spain. We thought somewhere quiet might be a nice change, although we’d never lived in the actual countryside before. It turned out to be a fortunate move, for shortly after, a worldwide pandemic began, and there was no place better to be in lockdown than our new home, a quaint Grade II listed stone cottage with a fireplace, in the most beautiful village in the north of England. It was cosy and quiet and charming. In fact, in 2020, it was voted one of the best places to live in the UK.