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Everything I Set Out To Do

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I think in retrospect, 2006 has been a success. I did everything I set out to do. Granted, I only set out to do one thing, "move back to Florida", but I think I accomplished it rather nicely. I don't know exactly how it all happened, but here I am, posting a blog entry while relaxing in style at my place in Florida. I know how most of it happened, though. I decided it should happen, and worked hard to get it done. That feels really good.

I left Phoenix without a job, an apartment, hardly any worldly possessions, or very much money. One of the things I did before leaving was to give away most of my furniture to a lady down the hall who hardly had any. Beat the hell out of moving it down the stairs! That's another story, but her friend said this year I would be blessed beyond belief. She was right; I have.

I asked God to make the move difficult, and to use it as an "initiation" for me. God did just that. It was hard. I bitched about it a lot until a friend reminded me that this is what I asked for. Coming out on the other side of it, I know I am much different today than I was when I drove away from Phoenix. I feel very initiated, trust me. By the way, never ask God to make things difficult. On the upside of this equation, God helped A LOT with the whole thing, including the "deciding it should happen" part, the "working hard to get it done" part, and a lot of other parts, many of which I'll probably never be aware of.

In the end, it was a year of many adventures, many stories, and a lot of ups and downs. Here's a good place to list them all. I'll start with some of the downs.

Downs:

• Spiritually, emotionally, physically - the move was extremely difficult
• Got really sick during the drive back
• Got a ticket
• Had either a falling out or loss of communication with nearly all of my friends at one point or another
• Went broke a few times
• Found a crappy job
• Lived in a cute, but shit-box apt. (kinda far from the kids)
• Cute shit-box apt decided to flood itself one day while I was at work
• Have I said "depression" yet? No?
• Broke my wrist
• Got a fix it ticket
• Got nasty letters from the Florida DOR
• Got mono really bad

Ups:

• Moved back to Florida
• Got money from strange, angelic sources, always right on time
• Found a great job, after quiting the sucky one
• Some old friends stuck, made some new ones
• Met this wonderful woman (see below)
• Found some freelance work
• Found a lively, delightful, nice place to live with the wonderful woman (closer to the kids and the great job)
• Paid back a lot of debts or set up payments
• Generally got my financial house in much better order
• Started working my relationship with the girls - going from where I was - to one of them saying "I want to live here", that's progress!
• God stays

As I said, along the way on this great adventure, I met mi amor de mi vida, an awesome gal named Michelle. She is mentioned in blog entries a lot recently, and she posts a comment every now and then. The relationship with her has been a whole new set of challenges and blessings. I'm so grateful for everything she is. I love her very much.

Also along the way I had a several epiphanies about my faith and belief in God. I'm still working out what it all means. I think I got dumped by a few very Christian friends who didn't "stick" with me, particularly after I moved in with my girlfriend. I'm not sure though; I never hear from them. They think I'm "living in sin". They're "concerned about my moral compass". The short version of the story is I still think I belong to God, and I think God is way bigger than I thought previously. I want to know the big God; the one who loves everyone. More on this topic later, perhaps.

Also of note, I've made progress on fixing up this web site.

Dec 30, 2006

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