October 2026 Reflections
Life Can Change on a Dime
It's funny how quickly life can change. We can spend months - sometimes years - thinking we know where we're headed. We make plans around the life we're living today and become pretty comfortable with our version of what comes next.
And then something shifts.
Sometimes it's enormous and unmistakable. A very clear before and after. But sometimes it begins with something much smaller. A conversation. A thought you've had a hundred times that suddenly feels different. A "What if we…?" that, for whatever reason, you don't immediately dismiss this time. And suddenly the future you were picturing isn't the future you're picturing anymore.
That happened to Lloyd and me recently. One conversation led to another and, somewhat unexpectedly, we made a pretty big decision:
We're downsizing.
And we're moving next door.
Into my dad's house.
Coming Home, Differently
If you've been with me for a while, you'll know that Dad died three years ago this October. Since then, his house has carried a strange mixture of memories, grief, responsibility, repairs (brand new custom windows last month) and a whole lot of decisions about what comes next.
But something changed. Instead of asking, "What am I supposed to do with Dad's house?" we started asking, "What could our life look like there?" And the answer felt surprisingly easy.