Bubbly Water and City Life: Exploring What You Never Thought You'd Want

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What if the thing you’ve sworn off is the door you need to walk through next? That’s the spark behind a candid reflection on moving from quiet country life to a small city with more diversity, more community, and more ways to serve. I share how an unexpected love of bubbly water on a trip to Germany softened a lifelong certainty, and how that tiny shift opened space for a much bigger one: choosing a place that aligns with my values and offers real opportunities to volunteer, connect, and contribute.

We dig into practical courage—how to test change with reversible decisions, why trade‑offs are built into every choice, and how fear shrinks when you run small experiments. From master gardener projects to neighborhood ties, I map how service becomes easier where paths cross and needs are visible. Along the way, I challenge a common habit: dismissing what we’ve never tried. Whether it’s mushrooms on a menu or a new ZIP code, direct experience beats assumptions, and curiosity becomes a reliable compass.

You’ll hear honest talk about what’s shifting across the United States, how clarity emerges when old issues are brought into the light, and why purpose thrives when we choose environments that match our intentions. If you’re feeling stuck, this is a gentle, grounded nudge to prototype your next chapter, one small test at a time. And if plant wisdom and resilient living speak to you, I’m inviting listeners to join my book launch team for Nature Knows: Growing and Thriving Through the Wisdom of Plants—early reads, cover votes, and a chance to help ideas take root.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a push toward possibility, and leave a quick review so more curious listeners can find us. Your next experiment might change more than your mind.

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Sign up for the launch team for my book, Nature Knows, and get free insider news and surprises at https://maryrothwell.net/natureknows

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hi, and welcome to a mini-episode of No Shrinking
Violets.
I live in the country.
I mean, it's pretty rural, and Ihave always been a country girl.
I never lived in a city.
I love visiting New York City.
And my husband is from an areaoutside of Cincinnati, so we've
spent a lot of time inCincinnati, Ohio.

(00:21):
But recently we decided thatwe're going to move to a city
that is about an hour away.
And it is not huge compared toCincinnati, and especially
compared to New York City.
But it is a city that is in thecounty where I grew up.
And I had never thought that Iwould live in a city.

(00:43):
And I think it's interesting.
It brings up a lot of kind ofponderings for me because it's
not something I would have everconsidered.
But I think sometimes in lifethings conspire to create a
situation or conditions whereyou do something that you never

(01:05):
thought you would do.
I'm going to give you a reallysilly example first.
And my husband loves carbonatedwater.
We call it bubbly water.
And I've always hated it.
I could never understand why hewanted to drink it.
Well, if you travel at all, youknow that a lot of places in

(01:26):
Europe, carbonated water orwater with gas is very common.
And as an American, they willbring you water, but Americans
are used to drinking usually icecold stuff, you know.
So you have to adjust a littlebit because often there isn't
ice, or you have to drink waterthat has bubbles in it.

(01:47):
Well, we recently went toGermany and I decided to just go
with it.
And I started to want to havethe carbonated water instead of
flat water.
And I ended up loving it.
Now we have one of those littlethings that carbonates your
water.
And it's one of the times inlife where I was, I'm just like,

(02:10):
how did I end up here?
Because it was something that Ijust couldn't stand.
And now I'm obsessed with it.
So that is a small and sillyexample.
I think that our choice to moveinto a city, it's a much bigger
example.
And I think what is conspired inthis situation is there are

(02:32):
things changing pretty rapidlyin the United States.
And I think some of the things,and I'm not going to get
political, but I think if I'mbeing a little philosophical, a
lot of what is happening isbasically just taking the cover
off of some things that havealways been here.

(02:53):
And it's just putting them inthe glaring spotlight.
But there are some things thatare really troubling and
concerns that I have about otherpeople that maybe aren't now
able to get things that theyneed to live or to live well, or
they they're needing to live ina different kind of situation.

(03:16):
So I think that is a situationthat has partially led to our
wanting to go to a city wherethere is a lot more diversity, a
lot more opportunity, because Iwould love to get involved in
volunteer work again.
I used to do master gardenerwork, and when I moved away from

(03:38):
the county where I was trained,I just didn't um get involved in
that county.
But I think there are so manyopportunities.
And I think if we can keep ourmind open to things, we find
that there are things that we'dwe would have never imagined

(04:00):
doing.
But if we let them bepossibilities, then it can
really change the direction thatyour life is going, or it can
enrich your life.
And it could be something assimple as deciding you're gonna
drink a different kind of waterto actually fully changing what

(04:21):
you want to experience in youreveryday life.
And I think too, sometimes weget so worried about making a
decision, or we have a sensethat we want to make a change,
but we let fear stop us.
And sometimes it's simple fear,or sometimes it's just
stuckness.
But there are so many decisionsthat if you try it, it doesn't

(04:45):
mean that it's forever you canchange your mind.
And not that it would be easyfor us to buy a house in the
city and sell it again, but Ithink it's just something where
it's a beautiful, lovely city.
There are so many things toexperience.
And I think allowing theconcerns, because you're never

(05:09):
gonna have 100% of what youwant.
It's not possible.
Not in a job, not in arelationship, not in living
conditions.
There's always a trade-off, evenif it's something small.
There's something where you, Iguess I shouldn't say never, but
I've never heard of someonehaving 100% of what they want.

(05:30):
Unless it's for just a moment.
I believe we have perfectmoments of joy.
But I think allowing things tobe possible, just pondering them
and seeing how you feel aboutthem can really open up and
enrich your life.
So if there's something thatyou've been thinking about, or
maybe there's something in yourlife that you say, um, I would

(05:52):
never do that, maybe let it be apossibility.
And actually, that made me thinkabout something that one of my
dear friends said uh a coupleweeks ago.
We were having lunch together.
There are three of us that Iworked with them decades ago,
and we still get together forlunch every other month.
And she was ordering soup.
And when she found out therewere mushrooms in it, she said,

(06:14):
I'm not gonna get the soup.
And then she laughed and said,Well, I've actually never tried
mushrooms.
And it cracked me up because Ihave done that exact thing.
I have an idea about something,and I refuse to um entertain the
thought of actually experiencingit because I've convinced myself

(06:34):
that I'm not gonna like it.
So think about an area in yourlife where maybe there's
something that you have beenpondering, or maybe it's simply
something where you've toldyourself you would hate it.
Experience it.
Maybe you'll end up being ableto say, honestly, okay, I tried
it and don't love it.

(06:55):
But it could be the opposite.
It could be something that youend up, like that scene in a
movie where you fast forward andthe character is doing the exact
thing they said they would neverdo, and you can laugh at
yourself and then you'veenriched your life a little bit.
So that's my thought for today.
And okay, there is somethingthat I would love your help
with.

(07:16):
My book just went off to theeditors, and I should have it
back in about a month to acceptthe edits and format it and get
it off to the printers.
So that's pretty exciting.
But I want to launch this thinginto the world with the best
chance of getting it into asmany hands as possible and

(07:36):
helping so many people to seehow they can live with the ideas
from nature that plants show us.

So my book is Nature Knows: Growing and Thriving Through the (07:45):
undefined
Wisdom of Plants.
And it has so many examples frommy clients, it has my examples
from my own experience as agardener, and a lot of actually
examples from my life.
So, what I need is a launchteam.
And a launch team is just agroup of people who will buy the

(08:06):
book at cost.
I don't make a profit from it,but they get the inside track.
They get to read the book, thereal physical book, before it's
available to the world and readenough of it, hopefully the
whole book, but read enough ofit to be able to give an honest
review so that when it goes liveand is birthed into the world,

(08:27):
other people have some input.
And, you know, reviews areimportant.
So it can give my book the bestchance to grow, pun intended.
So if you would like to be on mylaunch team, no obligation, but
I'm also doing some fun stuff.
Like you'll get to vote on whichcover we should have.

(08:47):
And my sister is doing beautifulillustrations, and you could win
some note cards that we're gonnamake from those illustrations.
We just have so many fun ideas.
So I would love to have you bepart of it.
You won't get all my emails.
You will just get emails for thebook launch.
If you would like to do it,there is a link in the show
notes.

(09:08):
It's maryrothwell.net forwardslash launch team.
And it's just a quick sign upfirst name, email, no must, no
fuss.
But I would love to have you bepart of it.
And until next time, go out intothe world and be the amazing,
resilient, vibrant violet thatyou are.