There’s this conversation I had with friends years ago after they returned from Italy. They were waxing poetic over the slower pace of life, and I was sitting back secure in my knowledge that even if they moved to Italy nothing would change but the scenery. They’d still have expensive hobbies and shopping habits that kept them chasing a paycheck.

i thought, it doesn’t matter where you are, what matters is your state of mind. You have to change your mind–your ideas about what you want and need–if you really want to change your life.

I wasn’t wrong. But I wasn’t totally right either.

That became abundantly clear after I sold my house and moved to Vermont to accompany my partner on his journey to grad school.

We rented a place near downtown Brattleboro, Vermont and settled in to enjoying that #VTLIFE.

Brattleboro is a town of about 12,000…