In the summer of 2018, we decided to make a last-minute change to our month-plus planned summer vacation (to sail SV Dakota down the California coast and revisit our favorite Channel Island, Catalina) and instead went to visit family in three provinces up in Canada.

We started our trip in Nova Scotia, then headed west to Quebec and finally spent the last part of our summer in Ontario. A trek of 3,100 kilometers, we booked some solid tires-on-asphalt time in our trusty rented minivan, sang (pitchless, most likely) along to some old favorites, and gave the kiddos a downright Griswold-like experience truckin’ along Canada’s roadways.

One kid lost his first tooth in Northern Ontario (on what would have been his Grandfather’s 69th birthday!), the other celebrated his first double-digit birthday at his first sleep-away hockey camp and the adults celebrated a big (18 years!) wedding anniversary. Old memories were revisited, new ones were made and in between the chaos and kilometers, we reconnected, recalibrated, regrouped and found gratitude in the company of each other.

It’s impossible for me to begin 2019 without looking back on 2018. Unlike some, I don’t feel overtly negative about 2018. I wasn’t one of the ones cheering “Later 2018! Don’t let the door smack ya on the way out!” on New Year’s Eve. The thing is, I don’t feel I have the luxury of wishing a “bad year” away. And, without judgment, I do feel it is a luxury to do so. For me, it is luxury to assume one will have an infinite number of years to go. Years with your spouse, your kids, your parents, your family, your closest friends, even though, deep in our hearts, we know that isn’t true. It’s far easier to put the blinders on, ignore that ugly truth, and march on as if this year matters more than all the years before and assume that there will be many more after.  And in my life, in my particular circumstances, that’s not a luxury I allow myself anymore. For me, every day, week, month, or year, good or bad, is another one I get to spend with the man I adore more than anything in the world (I know, cheesy, but just hang on) and it’s impossible to understand the depth of meaning of that statement to me without an explanation of why this man, who makes me crazy, annoyed and frustrated can, in the next breath, completely astonish me and leave me paralyzed with adoration. That, my friends, is because there was a “before” in 2012 and again in 2018 and now we are living in the “after” (and planning to make the most of it!)

Kincardine on Lake Ontario (Canada)

This morning I realized that it was Friday, which means it has been 7 days since we moved out of our family home in Northern California and onto…. well nothing yet.  Technically, many of our immediate belongings are on the boat (and the other half we intend to move out of a friends’ garage next week).  But for now, we are currently relaxing and recovering on the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada, very grateful for the opportunity to celebrate important milestones with family we haven’t seen or spent quality time with in years and catching up on some much-needed sleep.