November Reflections…
November has been a very strange time for me over the last few years, it wasn’t until just now, that I realized how many major events occurred in the month of November over that last five years. I hope this year, it holds something good.
Five years ago my dad turned 65. It was on his 65th birthday that it became clear the family that something was very wrong with him. Over the next year, through a series of situations, it would be revealed that my dad was suffering from Frontal Lobe Dementia and that he will never recover– the disease will spend the next five years robbing us of more and more of our dad every day.
Four years ago, my dad had a heart attack and underwent a quintuple bypass operation. His recovery would be difficult, as it was tempered with the dementia which caused him to think that his family is out to do him harm.
Three years ago, a few days after Thanksgiving, I received a phone call telling me that one of the kids that I served for nearly 6 years as a youth leader had suddenly died while tossing a ball with a friend at a church dinner. This occurred while visiting my parents in Dothan, AL, on a trip home from taking my dad on a trip to walk the Panama City Beach pier. I was driving when the call came and I had to pull over and get out of the car, as I was overtaken with grief. The Tuesday after burying Joseph began one of the worst years of my life as severe depression and anxiety overtook me and I began to suffer from panic attacks almost daily.
The following year, I departed on a trip that would set many changes in my life in motion. This was they year I went to Kenya, Africa. This was also the time that the filmmaking bug really began to work on me. I had spent thousands of dollars on equipment and the itch to make movies was really taking hold. It was also during that trip, that I concluded that I was going to move to Nashville.
Last year, I had already moved to Nashville and bought a house when November came around, it was also the month that I left my wonderfully well paying job to go on a three month creative hiatus to explore filmmaking. Now is is nearly a year later and I am still on hiatus and have had many wonderful adventures.
November has now come and hopefully holds something good again. Maybe a change or some kind of positive development that I can add to my list of November memories. Next week I will host a Thanksgiving dinner at my house… the first time that I have actually opened my house to company since I moved in. Perhaps it will be the start of something good, perhaps bringing new life to my old house. Maybe this month I will meet the love of my life, maybe find a new job that I love.
Maybe this November will simply be the first November in a long while that nothing significant happens– after the last five years, even that would be a welcomed change. Perhaps this is the month where all the lessons I have learned over the last five years helps me set sail on a new adventure. If so, I am looking forward to that… four sheets to the wind!