Savoring every single moment

Things look different when you know they're about to change.

My friend Erin Sorenson wrote that and it hit me right between the eyes.

I spend a lot of time these days telling Sarah how much I love everything.

I love our house, the incredible transformation taking place and am forever stopping to admire how beautiful it is and how much it feels like a loving home.

I love when Sarah's girls are here because, in spite of driving me absolutely crazy, they are fun and show love in the most obscure yet over-the-top neurotic ways ... plus they've become vicious Spades players and we love beating each other!

I love when my kids wander in an out, always unexpectedly and typically cramming lots of information and emotion in the smallest amounts of time.

I love Tybee Island still ... though Jesus Christ has it changed! ... with it's paramilitary police force, Stop Signs everywhere for no apparent reason, no parking whatsoever, a sign in front of City Hall flashing "Welcome! Parking Laws Strictly Enforced 24/7!" and it still won some award for being family friendly anyway.

I love my friends ... both the close ones and the virtual ones on Facebook who bring mostly humor and occasional drama ... sharing lots of music, dinner, drinks, opportunities for good times and who are there whenever I need them.

I love the Tybee Island Tuesday Night Acoustic Jam in the bar formerly known as Doc's because it's eclectic as Hell, funny, too serious, and magic sometimes happens that lingers for days.

I love Goddess, Winston The Little Gay Dog, Gypsy the formerly gender confused cat and a Hermit Crab I never actually see because they love us with incomprehensible depth and passion.

I love every trip Sarah and I have taken, from Ireland to San Salvador, Belize to Memphis, Costa Rica to Athens, Georgia and Disney World to downtown  ... the ones we're planning ... and the time when we finally do expatriate!

I love the solitude and the frivolity of the Beloved Back Deck where friends rise from the dead, drunken Angels visit, God listens while I talk, I listen to the quiet response, a choir of Cicada sing Hymns and where the party always end up happening.

I love delighting in Sarah from the ever-so-slow way she wakes in the morning to the passion of the moments that sprinkle our days. 

And I love me! It's taken a long time to get here but, as Mom says, it is what it is, and I've forgiven myself for the things I did wrong, celebrate all the good things and find myself extremely comfortable in my own skin.

I'm looking at everything these days knowing they're going to change.

Houses need constant repair ... little girls grow up ... children have families of their own ... Government justify themselves by increasing rules, regulations, fees and fines ... friends move or die ... religious ecstasy is harder to come by the older you get and ... Sarah goes back to work next week changing the way we live our days.

It's all good!

It's better to have loved and lost ... screw that!

It's just better to love!

Enjoy it while you got it!

Savor every single moment.

That's what I'm doing these days.