Big Picture

We've been working on moving for 2 years now, and we've lived in the same place for nearly 35 years. Thirty-five years of marriage, raising 2 girls, 5 dogs, 3 horses, too many rabbits, many hampsters, 3 guinea pigs, and 2 chickens. We've added a master bedroom and a half bath to the original house. Landscaped the yards. Remodeled the kitchen 3 times. Painted the house, inside and out a few times. And all this in the first 25 years we've lived here. You see we did all that to the house, then stopped, rested, and enjoyed what we had done for about 10 years. Or maybe a better description is we neglected things for 10 years. So now that we decided to move, there are a few things that need to be done-okay, quite a few things that need to be done. It's a good thing we gave ourselves 2 years to get ready for this move. The addition, remodeling, and landscaping was still good-it just needed to be cleaned up a bit. And we have accumulated a few too many things thru the years. So it starts again, the repainting, cleaning, sorting, garage sales, cleaning, planting, fixing, cleaning, buying, reorganizing, cleaning, decluttering, rearranging, cleaning....and now we are almost done...maybe...

I need to remember the "big picture" here. We are retiring and will enjoy a new life together. We will be in a new area and explore new places. We will be discovering new things about ourselves. I remember riding my horse and discovering a new trail. I didn't always know where it would meander, or where it would end up but I sure enjoyed the journey. At the end of the ride I always felt a sense of accomplishment. The years of riding and experiencing new trails brings about a sense of looking at life and knowing that there are a lot of things that I can accomplish, that it just takes a few steps forward and there's a new world out there to explore. I learned the skills necessary to ride safely thru an ordinary ride or one that had some "wild" elements to it. I gained confidence thru it all and learned that I was able to do more than I thought I could. That confidence building experience helps me whenever I have a new challenge set in front of me. So I look forward to our new journey and all the adventures that it brings. The "big picture" is more than what I see before me now...I can't wait to see where this trail will take us.