The Aha Moment

   Sometimes the aha moment is a stroke of genius, other times it is just seeing the same old situation in a whole new light. You know you have had this moment, when you feel a bit fooled by your own blindness and you realize that your perspective has been irreversibly altered. Well, we have had our aha moment with living in Montana. A destabilizing, earthshaking moment, resulting in a sinking feeling that our time has come to move forward and move on.

The Crown of the Continent

   We realized that we have been desperately trying to convince ourselves that this place is awesome. We have posted breath-taking photos, extolled the virtues of a simple life, a paired down existence, and an absolute freedom. Don't get me wrong, you cannot top the majestic beauty of this place. The only problem is that we are alone, really alone in a desolate, unforgiving, locals-only town.
   In turn, we bought the house documented in this blog, allowing me to invest everything I had physically, emotionally, maniacally to distract from the painful void looming on the horizon. The Flathead Valley has served our purposes well, I was able to test myself in many new ways, ultimately accepting the all important position as father.
   It has been ten long years, and my wife has managed to make friends and create strong communal bonds. She is after all a people person, I on the other hand have struggled, the friends that I make all eventually leave this valley in search of fresh opportunities.
   It has been an amazing adventure, and it breaks our hearts to leave a few, very special people behind. They are lucky enough to have grown up in this unique place, they have family here, this is their country. I will not sugarcoat the subject, we realized that even if we lived here until the day we die, that would not make us Montanans. We are Buckeyes after all, and we look forward to all the highs and lows associated with our return to Ohio. With tears in our eyes, we want to thank Montana for all the great moments you have shown us.

1 comment:

Crystal said...

Makes me sad

Popular Posts