If you were to slice me in half through the belly button and analyze my rings, you would be able to break apart my life into four epochs:
#1. 1983 – 1990: The Shit Your Pants and Be Happy About It Era
#2. 1990 – 2001: The I’m Better than You Era
#3. 2001 – 2008: The Arms Wide Open Era
#4. 2008 – 2016/17: The Searching Era
It takes a large and/or significant event to define a new epoch, and in 2008 mine came in the form of the greatest thing I have done in my life, which was to chase love through South America.
Leading up to that, I had to leave behind the conveniences which we all take for granted. I quit a kush job that would have easily seen me through the financial crisis of my lifetime. And maybe most difficult was to step back from many relationships that had cultivated and matured over many a wonderful year.
And that sucks.
But what nobody told me is that by making those gaps in your capacity as a person/friend/lover/co-worker, you can fill them again with new and wonderful experiences and even more amazing people. Not to replace what you had, but to enhance both the old and the new. Enhanced through a new and better you and your appreciation for a more inclusive world.
Ultimately I did find what I was chasing, I just didn’t know it… until I found it. When I have challenging moments with my wife, I find solace knowing that it was her who got me to where I am today. It was her who inspired me to be a better human. And we will always be better together. Thank You.
So to anyone who is pondering a serious life change or relocation… to anyone on the precipice of your next epoch, jump far… and jump long.
... You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. ... - Desiderata by Max Ehrmann