Every now and then, my husband and I have The Conversation. It goes something like this.

“Do you think you’d ever like to live in Boston (or Seattle or North Conway or Sedona or wherever)?” Or perhaps it starts, “Do you want to live out West again?” Either of us can begin The Conversation.

“Well, maybe. What would we do, rent out our homes and go live in an apartment for a year and see how things go?”

“Yes, and always keep one home here to return to.”

“Hum, maybe.”

We’ll play with it for awhile, kick it around, leave it open-ended. We do this because it is not only a great adventure to actually live in a new place, as we both have done, both before meeting and together, but there is also adventure in even considering it. We are both aware that we can live anywhere we choose.

After much discussion back and forth, we always decide to continue living here and to just visit other favorite places.

Seasonal delights

Here are some of the reasons we keep giving, reminding ourselves why we are choosing to live in central Maine.

My husband’s primary passion is downhill skiing, and we live in a place where we can wake up on a winter Saturday morning and decide which of the dozen or more ski mountains we wish to try that day, all less than two hours away! It’s true that we don’t have really reliable snow, but actually no one does in these days of global warming. (I recently heard that the ski resorts of the world are joining the environmentalists in fighting it.)

Not only are winter sports great here, but summer is about as good here as it gets anywhere. And of course, autumn in New England is a religious experience. So this is a true world-class, three-season area. All the tourists on all those buses agree.

I’m from an area of the country that would be a barren desert if not for irrigation, with dwindling fresh-water sources. (Water will become a huge concern in Southern California soon, I predict.) I need inherently green vistas, lots of big trees, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and, hopefully, an ocean. All that is in abundance here, and I love it.

Nearby cities, theater

In addition to a great place to live, both of us need lots of excellent destinations nearby to visit, including a city or two, for the night and for weekends.

Here we have the rest of this lovely state, including its islands. We have Boston, one of my two favorite U.S. cities, just 2½ hours away, and Quebec City, one of the most charming cities in the world, a pastoral five-hour drive. I’m not sure I could ever permanently move far away from Quebec City. We have many great places in the rest of New England. We have all of nearby Canada.

We need culture, particularly theater. And the theater here is awesome! In summer, so many actors and singers want out of sweltering New York City and to come to refreshing Maine. The Theater at Monmouth, Maine State Music Theatre and all of the summer stock places benefit from that. During the regular year, we are season ticket holders to the excellent Public Theatre in Lewiston as well as the totally enjoyable Community Little Theater. Tickets to any of these are so reasonable, and the productions as good as or better than off-Broadway.

I like that Maine is sparsely populated, with people and offices accessible. Through my work and community involvement, I’ve been able to shake hands with every governor in office since my arrival in Maine. I certainly would never be able to say that in California!

I could go on and on.

While visiting us, my best friend said, “If you move, you’ll just be looking for all the things you already have right here!” We have to agree. That’s not to say we won’t have The Conversation again, because we simply enjoy having it. But we figure we’re here to stay.

Dianne Russell Kidder is a writer, consultant and social worker, who is based in Lisbon. She is a regular contributor to this column. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].