A couple of weeks ago some of my Texas kids and grandkids and I were eating lunch at Steamworks Brewing in Durango. As I walked back to the table from the restroom I looked around at the industrial style room full of people smiling and laughing and talking. Everyone with vests or jackets, snow or hiking boots, some with knit caps. I slowed down to take it all in. And I thought to myself “I’m in frigging Colorado; never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be here, a local now. With all these people that love it here as I do, even with the challenges of the snow, and maybe because of the challenges loving it even more. And sharing the adventure with my family.” And I am once again grateful for the life I live and the choices, if not the circumstances, that brought me to this place.
This morning some photos of our house in Katy, Texas showed up in a website email I received. We lived there for 7 years while we worked in Houston and went to the ranch every chance we got. We were never crazy about Katy. It was a boring generic Houston subdivision. But we spent a lot of time turning our backyard into a beautiful garden. We had a few vegetables and lots of flowers! We tried to make it our own and every weeekend we weren’t at the ranch we were at the nurseries picking out new plants to try.
At one time we had a little fish pond until a feral cat destroyed it. We replaced it with a bubbly fountain made from a tall ceramic pot. It was a peaceful yard and we spent many afternoons grilling and having a drink on the patio.
When I looked at the photos showing up this morning I thought if we had been different people, I might still be in that house in Katy. If we hadn’t fallen in love with central Texas, if Rickie hadn’t been the kind of person that wasn’t afraid to take a risk, if he hadn’t taught me not to settle but to go for a better life, a better place. To ignore the people who thought we were crazy, that I was crazy to leave everything we had worked for behind to try and find joy and adventure.
If not for all that I might still be there in that little house, in that subdivision, with the beautiful yard we had created. And not walking through Steamworks Brewing in Durango, Colorado, feeling a kinship with everyone else in that room. And returning to a table full of kids and grandkids that have had adventures we never thought we’d have.
Life can be predictable and safe. And that’s not all bad. But every choice we have made has led us to where we are in this moment. Make sure some of your choices are unpredictable. Build yourself a boat and sail out of your safe harbor. Learn to embrace the challenges. The highs are never as high if you’ve not had the lows, or had to work a little harder for them.
That being said, us Texans are sure ready for some more Spring weather and the end of this crazy Winter! And we’ll love it all the more because of those times we were stuck in the snowbanks!
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