Changes

It's been four and a half years since my last post. So much has changed since then. My wife, Brigid, and I have been married for six and a half years. We got a yellow labrador (Guster) and she is now over four years old. Anyone who has or has had a lab knows the dichotomy of life with this canine. One minute she is greeting you at the front door, licking your face, or snuggled next to you on the couch. The next minute she's grabbed an entire chocolate cake off the countertop, deciphered child-proof locks on the garbage can, or chewed up expensive shoes. I suppose the good qualities outweigh the bad. Just barely.

I started a new job and have been there more than a few years now. I have since given up running after a snowboarding injury in ~2010 caused nagging ankle pain after every run. I had always lifted weights, without much organization or programming. About three years ago, I started lifting weights more frequently and with much more structure with my friend, Russ. I've made some great strides along the way. Interestingly, I had included some strength goals on this website and haven't viewed them in years. Surprisingly, I have accomplished all of them. What's even more surprising is looking at what my personal records were at that point. So many days we thought we weren't making progress. But like any endeavor, progress usually comes at a snail's pace.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes since my last post has been the birth of our son, Jack.

He's almost 16 months old and I can't seem to remember my life without him. We struggled to prepare ourselves for everything we would encounter these past 16 months, but nothing seems to prepare you. We read books, listen to parents and relatives offer sage advice, and discussed (sometimes argued) about how we would raise our baby. We threw out most of these learnings and just struggled to stay afloat for the first several months. Sleep became a luxury.Free time an even rarer commodity.But witnessing Jack laugh at something you did or try to repeat something you said is truly the best feeling in the world. My father used to teach us to hold our hands above our head when we were coughing to try and "open up" the airways. I never took the time to examine its validity, but I found myself subconsciously teaching Jack this trick when he would cough unexpectedly. It never even registered in my head until today when he raised his hands above his head all by himself without me asking him to. It made me reel…

Things are so much different than they were before. It was nice to have a glimpse into the past to see how far we've come. How different am I as a person? Am I better (or worse)? Either way, I think that is what I'm going to establish as this purpose of this slate:

A transcription of my attempt to become better as a human being--mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.