Why We Left Nashville for Florence, Alabama

I didn’t realize until later that our decision to leave began brewing in 2023. I was approaching 40 and on my third straight year of total burnout and untreated anxiety. I knew my work and life were unsustainable in their current form. Then came the meds. Hallelujah, then came the meds.

“Spud” on inspection day, November 2024

I’ve probably had anxiety my whole life, but motherhood amplified it a thousand times over. My 40th birthday gift to myself was to finally do something about it. You know, as a lil treat. For me it’s 10mg of Escitalopram (aka Lexapro, or as I call her - Lexie). It’s like living in an alternate universe. The overwhelm was curbed. The catastrophising ceased. All of a sudden I didn’t cry every day.

It was around this time that I began taking art classes with Metro Parks Visual Arts. I realized later (when reading Martha Beck’s book Beyond Anxiety) that these two developments were closely related. Beck says that the “the opposite of anxiety is not calmness, it's creativity”.

She argues that because anxiety and creativity require fundamentally different, often mutually exclusive brain functions, engaging in creative and curious activities physically prevents the brain from simultaneously experiencing fear-based, anxious spirals.

Not to be dramatic, but the winning combination of lexapro and art classes saved my life. I upended my work schedule two days a week to take classes in painting, pottery, collage. This meant that I had a lot of late, late nights catching up at the studio.

Finger painting in the backyard, March 2026

I also had a few of my first all-nighters since college. At the time, my studio shared a building with Liz’s Kitchen in Goodlettsville. Liz’s husband and widower Paul (aka Bubba, aka Pops) always showed up at 4am to get started cooking for the day. We would cross paths and say our hellos before the sun made an appearance.

I was now fully taking stock of life and work. I desperately needed to find balance. And now there was a third thing to add to the scales - a long-neglected creative life. Neal and I both knew the Shoals would suit us. There wasn’t even a consideration stage - it was just an obvious next step once we knew we were going to leave Nashville.

Spoiler alert - we are fourteen months in and I still don’t know how to keep everything in balance. But this town is giving Spud a childhood more rooted in community. The lower cost of living has meant less hustle and more time for simply living life. And it’s been such a fertile ground for all of us creatively and emotionally.

The Shoals Theatre, October 2025. The theatre is walkable from our house as well and I volunteer with the Shoals Theatre Movie Guild.

And let’s face it - I’m an elder millennial who has always wanted to live in Stars Hollow. Florence is a southern version of that quirky and quaint town the Gilmores inhabited. We are walkable to coffee shops, restaurants, the library, a park (and fountain), the art museum, the theater and - perhaps most importantly - a wine market and bar.

Our “new” home is older than most of my great grandparents - a Victorian with ceilings tall enough for me to work from home. We are downtown in the historic district and the picturesque UNA campus is basically in our backyard.

But of course, the best part has been the people. This community had their arms open wide for us from day one. And I mean that literally - our first friend in town is a neighbor who walked over to meet us when the moving truck was still out front.

If I haven’t made it clear, we love it.