I Wonder Indeed

When I first started this blog, it was because we made the crazy decision to leave the area we had lived for the past 25 years and where we'd raised our family to move to Baltimore so people could keep up with our new lives.  Hamp had an opportunity for a job there and shockingly to our friends and families and even ourselves, we took it. 

That was almost 3 years ago and what began as an adventure has turned into a way of life apparently.  Since that move, we've changed jobs two more times and moved with each change.  The Baltimore job ended suddenly when the plant had a small fire that ended up being the proverbial straw that set things in motion.  The next job returned us to the land of our roots even though we moved about 30 minutes away from what had been our old stomping grounds. 

In some ways that was a harder adjustment because while the debate will range until the end of time over whether this statement is true or not, I have concluded you can't go home again once you've left.  You're not the same and it's not the same.  Because we began attending a church that was in its infancy, new friendships were slow to develop and life events prevented frequent contact with the ones we still had.  The new job was difficult for Hamp from the beginning because he wasn't able to do what he'd been hired to and after almost a year, his boss decided he'd rather do it himself officially.  Between changes in the printing industry and a sick economy, the job market is not what it used to be for those looking for work.  Thankfully, options developed, but in the end only one offer was forthcoming...which required a move...to another state...again.

So here we are - almost three weeks into yet another new adventure livng four hours from what I think we still call home.  But if home is where your heart is, mine began spreading out about 4 years ago.

And today, I'm wondering...

"I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?" asks Samwise.

"I wonder," said Frodo, "But I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale. Take any one that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know. And you don't want them to."

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers