What Matters

I love this now out of date picture of my spouse and children on the field of competition at Olympia in Greece. They have different hair color, eye color, and height but they got very similar hair from my husband. I turn 53 today, so time to take stock. Obviously, the thing that matters most are the people closest to me. These are five of them. But what comes next? That is the eternal question, and the answer does seem to change over time. On days of anniversary (I do like the French, because while it is the day of my birth, it feels more like an anniversary to me, so calling it 'anniversaire' seems right to me), I reflect. Not being a particularly introspective person, I need to capitalize on the moments that I get to do so, and today is one of them. It has been an active year of change for me. The biggest change is has been moving into a smaller house, one that I hope will be the house that we retire in. We have a ways to go in a couple of areas--I am not nearing retirement age by any means, and the house is nowhere near in good enough shape at this point to be able to assess if it will fit those needs ultimately. Worse still, we have not been able to shed enough of our worldly possessions to be able to comfortably say that our children will not have to sort through mountains of things we should have gotten rid of to find things that are worth keeping. That is the goal of the next 5 years--to pare that down. The other big piece of making a house for the next stage of life--for us, the post children stage--is that you have to reconfigure what you want in a house. What was beyond priceless for raising our four boys definitely did not work for when they were all gone. Hppefully we will get it right. When you buy a house that is very old and who's upkeep has been neglected for many years, you are taking on a number of big tasks, some of which go better than expected, and some of which don't. Every time you unpeel the wall paper or go into a wall, you need to brace yourself for finding something unexpected. We have had some good luck and some bad luck in this arena, and it is a good life lesson. Be flexible. If at first you do not meet with success, that doesn't have to be the end of the story. Change it. That is what matters.