Get In Touch With Your Past
Learn from yesterday; Live for today; Hope for tomorrow.” ~Albert Einstein
Its hard going back, but sometimes one has to look back in order to move forward. Our natural instinct is to constantly move forward, taking the knocks, never giving up, never looking back. But every now and then, the best way forward, is to take a trip back and see what might have been.
This past month, I took my family back to where my American adventure began, Cape Coral, Florida. Since arriving in Orange County, I have had no desire to go back. I am just one of those guys who does not like to dwell too much in the past. However, my family has been bugging me for some time now to go back to Cape Coral and visit our friends. My daughter, Tayla, has always wanted to go back to see her friends, and her first home on the water where she learned how to swim. So the pressure was on, and finally we found the time to go make the journey.
We jumped on a plane and headed to Ft. Lauderdale, our first Port o’ Call. There we visited Matt, my friend of 15 years. He used to visit us in Cape Coral, all the time. (He and I had many gatherings sipping our favorite drinks and discussing the joys and pains of living and working on yachts in the Caribbean.) We then headed to the Keys and spent two days on his boat, stopping off at all the happening places and jumping into the ocean whenever we felt like a dip. I have to say, it felt great to be back on the water. The simple things in life have a way of making one extremely happy and content.
We then headed off to good ole’ Cape Coral via Alligator Alley. I had no real expectations, just a general sense of excitement, since this had been my home for 5 years. Our friends all looked happy and relaxed. The town had not changed much, but TheHomeMag Corporate Office looked fantastic, and recognizing so many faces from the past was an awesome surprise.
We took the time to take my daughter, Tayla, to see her old day care center and teachers, the hospital room she was born in, and visited our old house in Cape Harbor, where she had learned to swim. The new owners had heard all about us, and gave us a wonderful reception. Tayla felt like a rock star, and once again gave us a hard time for leaving Cape Coral.
We paddle boarded down the canals and onto the river with friends, visited all our old jaunts, went to our favorite spots on Captiva and Sanibel islands, visited friends in Naples, had countless parties with friends, and could not have imagined a better time!
At the end of the week, Debbie and I left Florida feeling a wonderful sense of calm. We could now see the whole picture so much clearer. “Moving on” we realized, is a pretty simple thing; what “moving on” leaves behind is what’s hard!
We know that we will always love Florida, and the wonderful friends we had made there. It will always feel like “going home” in a sense, however, we both know we made the right decision to move to California. It matches our vibration and energy.
Not all decisions we make in life turn out the way you expect. Some only become clear much later. Uprooting our family and moving to the other side of the country, where we had no friends or connections, and starting our business from scratch, yet again, was a major decision. Some might even say a very risky one. Yet here we were 5 years later, knowing that we had done the right thing, but still leaving with a feeling of nostalgia deep in our bellies. Life is a journey. Which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to, is all up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we will be when we get there.
Going back sometimes does help you to know that you are moving forward in the right direction! Have you looked back recently?
Have a great summer from all of us at TheHomeMag!
Ralph Harris, Editor
