September 7, 2012
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Okay, so I've been busy.
It's been over a year since I've posted, and I don't really have an excuse other than to say that I've been too busy living life to write much about it. Numerous ideas for posts had surfaced but never made it to the screen. I didn't even make a Stanley Cup prediction, though I can be honest and say I would not have picked the Kings. Living with a wife and two young children, a full-time job, a part time job, involvement in my church, being president of a charitable organization, working out 3-5 times a week, playing hockey, and trying to keep myself up to date on information and entertainment leaves little extra time. Nevermind the fact that last fall I underwent what may have been the most psychologically trying two months of my life: trying to secure a house that had everything my family and I wanted after 10 months of searching. This was followed by what may have been the most physically daunting task I've ever undertaken: moving every single possession my wife and I have accumulated over our entire lives along with those of our children from our house in the city to our house in the country in under 55 hours. But after all the phone calls to the utility companies, the internet provider, the satellite provider, and Budget truck rental, and the endless list of change-of-address forms, and the huge stack of papers from the bank and the realtor that needed to be explained/signed, we began to make ourselves at home. Of course, now perspective has set in, and I realize that if, after 35 years on this planet, this was the most mentally and physically stressing ordeal I have experienced, I have lived a truly privileged life. And it's funny - I've been wanting to return to the country ever since I lived in town, and this new house is superior in virtually every way to the old house. But it's impossible not to think fondly about the old place and miss it once in awhile. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to have just one more day there, just like it used to be. After all, it's the house where my wife and I spent our first night as husband and wife; it's the house we brought both our children home from the hospital; it's the house that saw first steps, first words, first days of school, birthdays, Halloweens, Christmases, daddy days, and countless cigars (for me) on the front porch. In short all of our lives changed in inumerable ways while living in that house and that neighborhood. I understand now how people who were born, raised, and live in places that seem so inhospitable to outsiders can still talk with pride and conviction about where they are from - it's part of a person's identity. People are generally happy with who they are and their environment helps shape that. Nevertheless, I look forward to new memories and new adventures in our new home. But I've learned to have more appreciation for what I have and what I am doing. Because no matter how much "better" life might get, at some point I will look at this time in my life and think, "It would be fun to live just one more day like that."
