It was completely and totally clear to both of us that:
“Communication is Key” we verbalized it enough but it
was so much more than that. Like we
never considered all of our values and beliefs we had as “OLD” or
“Old School”.
For me today, looking back through all the thinking I do every day now, I have discovered so
much from all my thinking of the memories and putting pieces together.
And now Ishare all of these with you through my writings here.
When we met, I was working very hard at my, at that time,
five year old business. But, I never
considered it hard, although a lot of people looking from the outside in made comments
all the time like; “You work hard Bob!” But it never felt like hard work for me
because the appreciation I had of the opportunity to be awarded these
particular cabinet lines gave me the opportunity to be my own boss and make my
own hours and do what I loved! I loved
and to this day continue to love to design and make people happy by giving them
the remodel they had been dreaming of or sometimes of what they “never
dreamed of being possible!” Then came the biggest decision of my life thus far. To move to Connecticut. The house, and meeting Karen. She was working three jobs, at least, when I met her she was paying rent on her own small studio cottage. She too knew what it was to work.
Like so many things in life, it was all about timing. When we met, how we met, and how we both
wanted the same thing in a mate. We were
both at very similar situations in our lives.
We were both ready and from day one it just felt so right.
True Appreciation, I won’t go as far to say it was present
constantly but, definitely consistently through all the 15 years. We worked hard together in our business. But I also taught Karen my lifestyle belief
of work hard/play hard. It was extremely
rare that we were ever opened or scheduled any appointments on weekends. The weekends meant flying, or boating and
water-skiing, and just loving the outdoors.
And having Saturdays off gave us the energy to go to some amazing house
parties in Fairfield County and go dancing together; many times we invited our
young clients. And of course, sometimes there were those weekends where we just
stayed home and worked on the house and/or just plain relaxed.
At the risk of being redundant, I have to say it again; we
so appreciated our lives and all that encompassed our lives. So, with that appreciation of our lives and
of our business and of our clients and of our having finally finding each
other, our many groups of friends including those wonderful friends we made at
church. We were so happy and so
appreciative of all we had.
And as the years went by, we were so thankful for all the
wonderful people and things and opportunities that came into our lives. Including moves to warmer climates, and the
ability to design and remodel our own investment properties and get paid for
it! For the adorable cottage we just
were able to drive up upon with the white split rail fence and the front
porch. And bidding on it and having lost
it to another buyer only to get a phone call weeks later that if we still
wanted that adorable cottage it was ours, again, great appreciation. A month after moving in, conceiving our first
child, again incredible appreciation. I
guess, it was a lot of excitement to which comes with good change. Tony Robbins once said to me through the
dashboard in my car; “Design your life to be exactly the way you want it
to be!” And I guess that is exactly
what I was doing.
All of what I am saying here, all we went through together
most of it was good, really good, and our lives continued to include happiness,
excitement, appreciation, and all the while we communicated about all of this
and more.
And as we grew together and learned, not only from each
other, but also together, this too brought us closer and closer. And so, the ideas or thoughts of separation
were virtually nonexistent. Just like any other relationship, we had our
fair share of ups and downs; it was a marriage that was far from perfect.
But, with the ever presence of communication and
appreciation along with values and beliefs and our faith, we made it, and it
was good, very good. I will forever
remember and be thankful for what we had.
~RJS