WALKING AND TALKING

Jean, what would you do if I died?

I thought that was an interesting and thought provoking question to ask my wife of many years during an after dinner walk. Jean, on the other hand, thought it was a strange and morbid question to ask anyone during an after dinner walk, but she answered it anyway.

I would move to Albuquerque, she said without skipping a beat.

I skipped a beat--let me tell you why. Over the previous few years Jean's entire family had moved from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to Albuquerque. Jean and I had some of our best vacations in New Mexico. A corporate co-worker and I had fantasized about getting out of the Chicago rat race and buying a hardware store in Albuquerque. As you can see, I was mentally settled in the Land of Enchantment already, and now I find out that the only thing that was keeping me from living out my dream was my not being dead! I thought it would be an interesting and thought provoking question.

Within the next eighteen months we were living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The only sacrifice we had to make was my being alive.

That walking Q & A session taught us something we hadn't realized about ourselves (besides how cumbersome my being alive was). We realized that where we lived was important to us. We wanted to hang our hearts where there were mountains, sun and a sky you could see through. For other people the physical trappings of where they live mean little, for them it is the job, or closeness to family, or being able to hang around the old neighborhood.

There is nothing intrinsically right or wrong about where you choose to live or any other of life's choices, as long as you know what your choices are and choose to make them.

Get out after dinner and take a walk.

Lesson:Communicate with people important in your life about things that are important in your life.