It's incredible what manages to drift through your mind when you are thinking clearly.
What a good night. I finished up my work week with Game 1 of a three game series for NCAA hockey playoffs tonight. After working a good game, hanging with friends for food and drinks post game, I climbed into my comfy (heated) seat and pointed the car north toward home.
And I turned the music on.
Tonight was just below freezing. Enough to warrant turning on a little heat and then cracking a window to get enough fresh air to stay sharp at 80 mph. To cap it off, I cranked the music and just let the iPod shuffle.
Somewhere during the drive, I began to hear music from my past. Old favorites. Songs that took me back to college. To times when there were few responsibilities. Few cares besides getting my home work done. No real bills to speak of. Music took me back to memories of life in the dorms, life in my Middlebury apartment. Riding my bike, playing hockey and constantly hanging out with my friends. To times when there were no cares in my world.
Somewhere in that mix of old music was a newer song. An artist Hope and I have recently discovered.
"Cause this life is a beautiful one
And though I've seen it comin' undone
I know most definitely
It's gonna be you and it's gonna be me"
And with this song and a return to my present place in life, I found myself grinning in the dashboard lights. A smile for this wonderful wife I am blessed with. Joy for this beautiful daughter who is writing an incredible new chapter for me to read each day. An appreciation for all the responsibilities that I now carry no matter how heavy.
I wouldn't trade any of it to go back. As much as those memories are fun, my current life trumps them all. I carry those burdens of work, bills and late night drives happily because they all melt away every time Hope welcomes me home with a kiss and every time Emiko looks at me and says Dada.
I love this life.
What a good night. I finished up my work week with Game 1 of a three game series for NCAA hockey playoffs tonight. After working a good game, hanging with friends for food and drinks post game, I climbed into my comfy (heated) seat and pointed the car north toward home.
And I turned the music on.
Tonight was just below freezing. Enough to warrant turning on a little heat and then cracking a window to get enough fresh air to stay sharp at 80 mph. To cap it off, I cranked the music and just let the iPod shuffle.
Somewhere during the drive, I began to hear music from my past. Old favorites. Songs that took me back to college. To times when there were few responsibilities. Few cares besides getting my home work done. No real bills to speak of. Music took me back to memories of life in the dorms, life in my Middlebury apartment. Riding my bike, playing hockey and constantly hanging out with my friends. To times when there were no cares in my world.
Somewhere in that mix of old music was a newer song. An artist Hope and I have recently discovered.
"Cause this life is a beautiful one
And though I've seen it comin' undone
I know most definitely
It's gonna be you and it's gonna be me"
And with this song and a return to my present place in life, I found myself grinning in the dashboard lights. A smile for this wonderful wife I am blessed with. Joy for this beautiful daughter who is writing an incredible new chapter for me to read each day. An appreciation for all the responsibilities that I now carry no matter how heavy.
I wouldn't trade any of it to go back. As much as those memories are fun, my current life trumps them all. I carry those burdens of work, bills and late night drives happily because they all melt away every time Hope welcomes me home with a kiss and every time Emiko looks at me and says Dada.
I love this life.
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