What does it cost to be happy, and are you willing to make a sacrifice?

The money that bought a small house and one half acre in Media, Pa bought us, in 2001, a roomy farmhouse built around 1850 and maybe even earlier, a big old barn that could house 20 families and once housed cows, pigs, grain, chickens, horses. We are on 10 acres of land; no neighbors. A creek runs along one end of the property and a mountain rises up just beyond the creek.

We didn't know what had to be sacrificed in order to be living in our dream home. That's for another day. But the scales weigh heavily on the dream. Listening to our creek at night; crystal skies where all the stars are visible; the sweetest, most delicious drinking water; and room, room enough for everything. A small part of the big red barn is my husband's workshop. I have a separate office in the house where I can think and dream and write and read. Our place is a sort of microcosm of the natural world; we have a small swamp along with the creek complete with cat tails, a pear tree that then bore fruit (but doesn't anymore), and tons of lovely wildflowers of every season. My husband is growing vegetables now which he harvested and we are eating. We can have three pets, a dog and two goofy cats; there's room enough for them, too.

A fifteen minute drive gets us to Bloomsburg where there is a college, library, movie theatre, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, stores, fast food, good restaurants, great bagels.

Paradise? It sounds that way; it is that way if you remember that paradise doesn't come free and will demand a sacrifice.