As I reflect back upon my life, I see some incredible and amazing changes. I went from an honor student with a perfect attendance record to an alcoholic lead singer of a metal band. I went from an insane drug dealer and cocaine fiend to a happily married, sober, faithful father of four and counting.

Through all of my existence, the only thing that has seemed to stay the same is the fact that I really just do not exactly “fit in.” As @anotherjoe would put it, I am basically a “weed” in this society.

This has not exactly been the goal, it’s just what has happened. I’ve not tried to make choices for the purpose of going against the flow or making things awkward, I just refuse to go along with things that do not make sense from my perspective.

Thankfully, I live in a country where we do have a lot of freedoms, and there is still a great opportunity to make your life what you want it to be. We are either free to join in and go with the main flow of the society, or we can exercise our freedom to choose another path for our lives.

A few years back I really started to evaluate a lot of different aspects of my life to see if there was a better way. Thankfully, as I re-evaluated and attempted to determine which route was best for me to take in this life, my wife has faithfully been right beside me. We have been able to walk forward with a oneness and agreement that has made this transition accomplishable.

He have by no means exactly reached our final destination in this life, and have not completely achieved all of our goals, but we have a vision and a goal, and are heading that direction.

HOME – THE DESTINATION

Ahh, home. The place that some dread and others long for. With such an incredible and diverse world out there, who would want to stay home?

Home was not exactly the goal that I had in mind, but it has now become the place that I long to be more. Many of the activities that people leave home for were all accomplished from the comfort of their own homes not all that long ago.

Family members would see one other throughout the entire day, and they didn’t mind it. In fact, they enjoyed the presence and company of each other. My how things have changed!

Many people can’t stand their parents, kids, or even spouses these days. However, I realize that my time with my wife and children is passing away very rapidly. I remember once when I was working long hours at least six days a week, I was finally at home lifting my oldest daughter (who was just a baby at the time) into the air. As I looked into her face and saw the changes that occurred as she had been growing, I thought, “Where have I been?”

She looked so different. Even now as I write this I am riding in a vehicle on my way to work, leaving my family until late tonight. They were sleeping when I left and won’t be up for too much longer when I return. I know that my goal is to just have this be for a season, but it is still not easy for me. I once told my wife “until death do we part,” but now I leave her almost every day.

Anyway, to spend more time with my family, I need to be with my family. It’s that simple.

It seems that certain trends in society have been dividing families for a long time, and I now have the opposite goal, so I will be swimming upstream against the current once again.

As I continue in this series, I will try to make one post each day until the series is over, so it’ll be easier for you to follow along if you want to.

I’ll be sharing some different choices that we have made as a family. These may not be choices that anyone else is interesting in making, but they are what we are up to, and what I will be sharing.

This is part one of six in the series, so I will be sharing about five different ways that we are making that long, strange journey home.

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