It has been one year since we jumped ship and traded in snow boots for flip flops. I’m pretty sure it’s been the fastest year of my life! If I didn’t know better I’d think I have been caught in some sort of time-space continuum that shortened a year by six months. It sounds so cliché and trite to talk about the passage of time that we all experience and all feel goes far too quickly, but I am amazed that it is October and a year since this new direction took flight.
So, how do I feel? I’m not sure. It’s been a year of discovery. There’s a big difference between visiting a place and living there, as I knew there would be. It’s impossible not to compare one place to another, and when comparing Florida to Colorado you’ve got some big differences to measure.
You’ve got weather differences where temperature alone doesn’t tell the whole story. In Colorado you can barely squeeze moisture out of a raindrop. In Florida there is so much moisture in the air a set of gills would be handy. In Colorado an hour in the sun, perhaps less is all you need to dry a load of laundry. Do that here and it will be soggier the next day than it was when you started! I am convinced that the greatest invention of mankind is air conditioning! Don’t believe me? Come visit in August or even September. Dare you! I’m not saying anything about hurricanes. We have two more months of hurricane season, and until then I’m not tempting fate.
The terrain of Colorado and Florida couldn’t be more divergent. Majestic mountains with 14,000 ft. peaks brushing the sky versus flat, flat, flat. That’s not totally fair, because there is the hill country of north central Florida and the rolling terrain of the panhandle, but down here in the southern peninsula, it’s flat! The upside, there is no “up side”. You can walk and bike in both directions and it’s flat both ways. No need for 21 gears on your bike here. One will do.
While Colorado is awash in fall colors we are still green and will mostly stay that way. But while colorful Colorado will soon fall bare we are only just beginning to come alive in flowers. Different varieties blooming one after another, setting the landscape ablaze with fall and winter colors of a different kind.
I miss the snow during the holidays, and those days when you can curl up in front of a fire with a good book while it snows softly outside. I don’t miss scraping my windshield, pushing a grocery cart through it, or sliding through an intersection on ice. I love the water and Florida has no shortage of it. The Gulf is gorgeous. For much of the year it offers a refreshing place to swim, while enjoying the sand and sun. When I’m not there, I’m in the pool. So, let’s see, shoveling snow or building sand castles? You choose. I already have.
I miss my friends, but what Florida has that Colorado doesn’t have is our kids and our grandson. There is no measuring stick for that. It has been good to be near them again. To be able to be a part of their lives, not just visitors in them. Life changes quickly and we won’t always live close, but for now we are happily drinking in that blessing.
So, where did the time go? Where it always goes. Somewhere behind us. There are lots of theories about why it seems time passes more quickly the older we get. The important reality, it does, so pay attention. It’s already been a year!