Love doesn’t shrink when you step away

Next week, we head to London.

It’s something we do each year, yet it always feels both familiar and new. There’s the excitement — a city rich with history, long walks, good meals, and conversations that linger.

And then there’s the weight of leaving. Our farm. Our animals. Our routines. Our heart. And the people who fill it — our kids, grandbabies, friends, and the everyday closeness that makes stepping away feel tender.

We place the daily care of the farm in trusted hands and remind ourselves that love doesn’t disappear when we step away — it stretches, expands, and holds steady in new ways.

We go to London to teach for three weeks, working with honors students on human-centered design and leadership. It’s meaningful, energizing work that asks a lot of us. Teaching abroad is rewarding and exhausting, inspiring and humbling — and it keeps us learning right alongside our students.

Woven through all of that is something quieter, but just as important: time together. Date nights. Shared experiences. The gift of being far from home, side by side, noticing new things.

Travel, for us, has become part of how we design a flourishing life — not as an escape from responsibility, but as an expansion of it. A way of honoring curiosity, growth, and connection, even when it means holding both excitement and longing at the same time.

And maybe that’s what adventure really is — building a life that gives you both roots to hold you steady and wings to carry you forward.

With love,
Lane + Jules

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This letter first went out to our readers in the Country Living Connoisseur on February 5, 2026. The full issue has the garden and farm kitchen sections too. Want the next one? Pull up a chair and join us here.