Nine Years Later

 Reminders of my past life in Southern California show up every now and then.  Like the photos sent from friends enjoying life on the beach.  Perhaps they are attempting to show me what I'm missing.  Or maybe they want to tempt me to return to my old life.  There is something missing in their enticements.  Lessons. Life lessons.  They are the kind of lessons you usually don't learn unless you move from a place of status quo to a place of uncertainty.  That's where the real personal growth is.  The unknown environment I relocated to nine years ago is the place where I became a new person.  I became a better husband.  I became a better human.  If you don't believe me, ask my wife.  Nine years ago she told me she was homesick.  I thought to myself, how can a man who grew up in the Arizona desert and spent twenty-two years of his life living less than an hour's drive to the beach survive in a place where Winter temperatures dip thirty to forty degrees below zero?  Was I a bit nervous? Hell yes, I was.  I will never forget my Socal teammates placing bets on how long I would survive.  Most believed I wouldn't even make it through my first Winter.  

Ask anyone who has been married for 20 years or more what their secret to their marriage is and you will get some inspiring answers.  As I reflect on my life before our relocation to the Midwest, I see one glaring error I made early on.  I did not keep my promise to set up a second home near my wife's family.  Even though my foot was on the accelerator peddle so I could earn enough to set up two residences, I fell short. I took risks that didn't pan out.  I allowed my optimism to blind me to various pitfalls that stymied my plans.  Letting go was the right thing to do.  I couldn't afford two homes but I could keep my promise and set up residence in unfamiliar surroundings.  Today I am a new person.  And now the good news.  Sometime next year we are going to do something really exciting.  In my opinion, it's even better than my original idea to have two residences.  We are going to create a second home on wheels.  There are two things I need to do before we take this step.  Number one is financial independence.  Number two is publishing my next book.  These two goals will help me keep my focus for the next ten or so months.  One year from now we will be celebrating the first ten years of our new lives in the Midwest.  That's the plan.  Stay tuned.  Have a great day.