We have officially moved!

After several months of living in two cities and traveling back and forth between San Antonio and Houston, we are finally all under the same roof with all of our belongings. Now the challenge is to find that balance again as well as locate all the proper places in the new house for all of our old stuff.

We didn't throw a lot away going into the move and we have come across things that the movers should have never had to shove in a box. The phrase "why did we move this" has been said more than once in the past few weeks. My wife looked at the moving manifest and informed me that we have well over twice as much crap as our last move six years prior. Years before meeting my wife you could fit EVERYTHING I own in the back of a pickup truck.  Now we fill up a Mayflower truck. A family of four can collect a lot of stuff.

To be honest, I can still fit the things that are just mine and mine alone, in the back of a pickup truck. If my wife kicked me out, I personally wouldn't need more than a 500 square foot apartment. Just enough space for my junk and whatever hobbies I might pick up in my single life that I would have to add to some dating app bio. "I love cooking, writing, making home brew beer and crying myself to sleep every night wishing I was still married". The thought of my hypothetical single life scares the hell out of me, so I think I'll just stick with the chick I fell in love with 19 years ago. I'm still pretty fond of her and the life we have made together.  Although, she has tons more than I do. She and the kids are the other ninety-nine percent of that Mayflower moving truck!

As we separate the items and locate where they belong in the new home, I realize that many of my things that have moved with us all these years are not expensive material belongings. They wouldn't impress you with their expense and on the surface you wouldn't see their worth. They are memories. Boxes and boxes of memories that would all fit into the back of my 65 Chevy truck. A truck that is basically memories on wheels. Bessie (her name) isn't worth as much as her showroom cousins, but she's pretty from about twenty yards away and my wife secretly hates how she takes up precious space in the garage that she, my wife, could use for more stuff!  Don’t worry, I’m not about to do a George Carlin bit about stuff.

As I started to sort through my things and organize my collections of memories, I came across a stack of things that I had forgotten I had kept though all these years. Thank you cards.

Anytime anyone has ever given me a thank you card, I've kept it. From small ones with simple signatures to long ones from people who wanted to share their feelings with me and how I might have made a difference in their lives. As I thumbed through the collection (basically procrastinating and preventing me from putting anything away) I started to reflect upon my life's work as a human being. I was reminded of how certain people felt about me, what I might have done for them and many other stories that I had forgotten over the years. You sometimes forget about the difference you have already made when you're always focused on the potential of tomorrow. These letters not only bring back memories, but they can often refill your internal and emotional tanks. A few simple words can make all the difference even twenty years after they were originally written.

#Tryharder to live a life worth thanking. Be a person worthy of thank you cards.  Make sure your actions are worth notice by others and for all the right reasons. Do not do things in hopes to be thanked and noticed, but rather hold yourself accountable by being a good person. Do right by the world and the world will thank you it so many ways. Give thanks to those who have moved you and allow others to praise you for helping them.

My most treasured material possessions are not items that hang on a wall or clasp around my wrist; they are things that sit in a cardboard box in my attic collecting dust. They are mine and mine alone and I am very thankful for them.