Finally, the weather is getting warm enough such that, for the first time since moving in last October, we began enjoying the time on our upper deck. It faces a narrow but wide wooded area, with a small stream running through below our deck. Our new residence is not only beautiful but peaceful.
I say half-jokingly and half-seriously that the area is where my maiden name, Tanikawa 谷川, belongs. Tani 谷 means gully or valley; kawa 川 means stream or river. From our deck, what we see is a small gully and a narrow stream, running east to west. There you have it.
For as long as I have known him, over a half-century, David always wanted a rocking chair. Now each of us has one, to rock together, soaking in the beautiful outdoors in the evening, whenever the sun is shining and/or the temperature is lovely.
What a difference it makes, psychologically, between before and after the move into our new home! At our previous residence, we hardly enjoyed the beautiful brick patio at the back of the 3,500 square-foot, all-brick house, which sat on a 1.56-acre lot. Yes, everything about the place was always picture-perfect, both inside and out. With insurance benefits on our side, the cost of the rebuild itself was not the issue, either.
In our household, we always had a clear-cut division of labor in terms of cash flow. I handled “business;” and David, “personal.” Consequently, I did not know that there was an issue with household expenses. Then, one day, David said he was going back to work starting June 1, 2019. I was stunned. I asked why. He said he needed to get a job to pay property taxes, which more than tripled after the 2009 rebuild, caused by the 2008 fire, caused by lightning, which is often referred to as “an act of god.” Perhaps there is divine wisdom in everything that had happened to us.
For 22 months starting the day David went to work until we sold the previous residence on March 31, 2021, I was not able to relax at all. This was a good thing, in retrospect, because it forced me to focus on figuring out “how NOT to rely on his work” to pay for all living expenses – just as we had always been able to in the past with no issue. One obvious solution was to sell the rebuilt house and move into another one whose property taxes are more in line with what we can easily afford. And that is exactly what we did.
Fast forward to today, assuming ceteris paribus, either together or one of us surviving the other, the chances of us facing financial difficulties in the future are nil to none.
David continues to work at the library not because he needs the money but because he enjoys what he does.
With no more financial concerns, daily relaxation on the deck, weather permitting, feels like life’s most precious gift from heaven.
Above all else, I am grateful for every single day that I get to spend with the love of my life, whether on our favorite deck, on the road, or anywhere else.
Life is good.
