Happy 2017! I'm moving soon!

It's hard to believe that another year has passed. We often talk about how time seems to go by faster the older we get, and it's absolutely true. Every year seems to go faster and faster. Logically it makes sense. The more years we've lived, the smaller the percentage of your life a year is. The net result can be that your life feels like it's just passing you by. I've had this experience for a few years. The good news is that this can also be used to our benefit. For one, bad times never really seem to last that long. When experiencing challenges, we know that change is going to come. Of course the flip-side of that is that the good times don't necessarily last that long either. But this is what life is really about, i.e. dealing with inevitable change and adapting to make the most of it.

The other huge benefit to time seemingly going faster is that we learn to not take it for granted. It's easy to get caught up in work, in minutia, in wasting our lives away. By not taking life for granted, we can focus on what's important. I know that in my own life I have often focused too much on little details. In the last two years, I focused almost entirely on work and on building a business. This has been on purpose, as I have a mission. However it's been really unbalanced, and I have consequently felt the results of such imbalance. Reminding myself of how quickly life passes by and how precious it is leads me to realize that I need to work less and have more time for other things in my life. I often joke about how much I work, which really is around 70 hours a week. But the truth is that it isn't funny. In working so much, I not only use up a lot of my time right now but I also could be shortening my life. I'm ready to change that.

There are a lot of changes I have planned for this year, but I only want to focus on one here. I am moving to a new place next month! A comfortable living space always been important to me. As an introvert, this is where I recharge, where I get away from the world when I need to think. And of course, it's where I spend time with my cats, where I prepare meals, and where I sleep. What I've found is that when I don't feel grounded at home, I tend to experience chaos in my life.

For the last few years, my living situation has been less than ideal. For a year I lived in what can only appropriately be called a slumlord situation. I rented a tiny house in a neighborhood that was very nice and centrally located; the house, however, was a dump and the landlord was slow to fix anything and many things were not fixed despite the rent being ridiculously high. It had mold and was falling apart. I experienced severe depression when I was there and couldn't wait to move. Sadly, two of my elderly cats died while we were living there, and I was beginning to wonder if  the conditions there played a role.  I was completely broke. My life was a wreck.

As soon as I could, I got out of there. I moved back into an apartment for the first time in over two decades. This is where I am today. I've been living here for a little over two years. It's not a terrible place, but I don't like it. I've never really liked apartment life because I need privacy, and there is little of that when living surrounded by other people on all sides. I find myself dealing with noise, people smoking when I walk outside my apartment, constant intrusions by apartment personnel, and parking issues. I do realize that I'm lucky to have a decent place to live and know many people are not so fortunate.  It is worlds better than the previous place. Still, it is not ideal, and I believe in aiming for something better. My situation has changed from when I first moved in, and I can afford to go somewhere more in line with what I need to be happy.  So, that is what I'm doing.

In February, I will be moving to a bungalow in Hyde Park.  It was built in 1940, which seems to be my favorite year for houses. I'm super excited about this!  The location is better than I could have ever expected, and the house is completely redone and amazing.  It is literally just a few feet away from one of my favorite restaurants. I have wanted to live in this neighborhood as long as I can remember, but somehow I never found a place that worked for me.  The house has a super sweet sun room in the back, which the cats are going to love, and an amazing deck and backyard.  The space is perfect for me, and I am looking forward to living there.