Here’s my most recent column, now up at at Project Simplify:

The Not-So-Simple Life: Deserting the City

by Lance Brown

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The official story is that I did it for the dogs. “Leash freedom!” was our rallying cry.

I tend to emphasize the official story, because the real story evokes John Denver, and banjos, and maybe a pair of overalls.

When we (my pets and I) moved to Southern California two months ago, definitely the biggest change in our daily lives—besides pure geography—was that of our 2 hours of walking each day, 100% of that time was spent on-leash, and in civilization. And by “civilization”, I mean traffic and noise, sidewalks and fences and yards, highways, traffic lights, crosswalks…each of which presented challenges to my dogs, with very few accordant benefits.you are here

But to say that it was just the dogs that ultimately got us to move back out to the country would definitely only be half of the story.

About two weeks into our new life in the city—some might call where I was a town within L.A., or maybe a suburb, but it was a city by my count—I realized that I was getting particularly agitated, even on our walks. (Perhaps especially on our walks.)

While part of that was the fact that I was living in a garage at the time and perpetually looking for a new place, another big part of it was that it had been two weeks since I had taken any sort of long meditative walk in the woods—which long-time readers know is a key part of my formula for continued mental health.

For some reason, going on walks where I had to negotiate two or three dogs on leashes down noisy streets, through frequent intersections, past manicured flower gardens and yards, often while toting around a nice swinging bag of poop or two, just wasn’t bringing me the quietude and peace of mind I was used to. Go figure.

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Read the rest at Project Simplify