Not from around here
Notes on repatriating to Vermont
I checked today and I’m a 9th Generation Vermonter on both sides of my family. People in my line were among the first settlers of (at least) two Vermont towns, Ryegate, the southermost town in the Northeast Kingdom (NEK) on my mom’s side (Nelson) and Cornwall in the Champlain Valley’s Addison County on my dad’s (Stevens). I was born here in 1976 and I promptly left in 1995. Two years ago, while visiting during the first COVID Christmas, I accepted an in-person job in Burlington and Middlebury.
A few weeks later I watched as rioters stormed the Capital just a few blocks from my DC condo and then waited to see how things went during the inauguration before driving back down to pack and sell my home.
Two years of a career change but mostly a life change returning to my family but leaving my family of choice. I believe this is where I’m supposed to live but I’m lonelier than I’ve ever been and in many ways, my health is worse. 2023 is the year I hope to work less and live more. To fill out the contours of my life here. To figure out where I fit in, who I am, and how I’ll live here for the rest of my life.
My word for the year is Lover. To be a lover of all people. To treat myself with complete love. To feel love everyday and give love everyday. My pets, my home, my family and my community.
I’m resolving to do a few things every day this year.
Move (for 30 minutes, preferably outside)
Write
Take Care (of my self, pets, communities and home)
What’s next?
I’m attempting a spend nothing January
I’m contemplating adding a dog to my household.
I think I’m beginning to enter menopause.
I’m managing a business that is at a turning point and I’m running my own small business.
I’m on the board of a nonprofit entering strategic planning.
I’m called to impact the role of women in the professional sphere and feel like fixing child care in a systemic way is at the core of that.
I’m in the whitest state in America and want to ensure I’m smoothing the entry point for new Vermonters of all backgrounds.
I am struggling with the concept of accumulating wealth for my own security and for the first time, the next generation of my family, but also holding the door open to make the playfield level for all.
I revere the natural beauty of this state but want to help find a way to make housing more affordable and wages higher so kids like me don’t have to leave.
It is important to me that healthcare in this state is better and more affordable.
I’m still reckoning the person I was before I left with the person I am now. And what happened to the life I led outside of this State, is it just gone?
I’m learning to garden for the first time.
I read tarot and hone my intuition.
And there is my family.
So, if discussions of these items are of interest to you. Please join me!
I love you so much! Nikki
Juliette on the drive to Vermont, “just to stay through the holidays” the day after Thanksgiving, 2020.