As I do interviews for my book This Is Where You Belong, I’m often asked, “What’s the number one thing someone can do to feel more attached to where they live?”

Most of the time, I tell them to walk.

Why? Mostly because it’s full of things that engage and delight the senses. My teenage daughter and I took a walk the other day, on a slightly-too-balmy afternoon when almost every growing thing in our neighborhood was in bloom. The air smelled gloriously of honeysuckle and lilac. We passed a handful of flowers whose names we actually knew—tulips, penstemon, bearded irises—and dozens of others we didn’t. “When we move to a new house, let’s plant some things that smell good,” Ella said. Continue Reading