Fall, A time for Reflection

Aña and I have been back in the States for just over two months now. I've wanted to update this blog for awhile. Leaving it alone with a mysterious post about our return to the U.S. was certainly not my intention. It is just that we have been staying very, very busy.

We left the Yoga House in Guatemala to return to Wisconsin. We were just getting settled in again after traveling around with Aña's brother, Matt. We were starting to sell homemade food and I was teaching some more advanced Yoga classes. Things were going great, but we decided in less than a day to return home. We received the tragic and upsetting news that Aña's father, Ted, had taken his life. In one note he left he stated he was "sick of the roller coaster of life". For him it had been a bigger roller coaster than many ride. It seemed he was finally fed up with the bipolar disorder he battled with for many years. Us returning home to be with family and offer as much support as possible is the only thing that made sense. As mentioned in the previous blog we had a very crazy trip back, but returned safely.

We were back about a week before Ted's memorial service on August 14th. The service was held at a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. It was one of the most beautiful and heart wrenching and warming memorials I've ever been to. Stories were shared, songs sung, and many tears were shed. Aña, her two younger brother's beautifully compassionate eulogies held a common chord. They resonated on the creative outlook to life their father passed on to them. It seems many knew Ted as a great story teller with an ability to make friends wherever he went. There is definitely a noticeable void in the day to day life here in Appleton.

I spent a month living with Aña and her mom. I stayed busy preforming a variety of maintenance on the house and donating or selling excess material objects. With the help of some very generous volunteers we even tore down the adjacent one and a half car garage. It had a leaky roof for several years causing the infrastructure to rot beyond repair. I'll post some pictures of that project.

Then, I had an opportunity to run my folks bar in Northern Wisconsin where I grew up. I ended up working about six days a week for the month of September. The bar tending gig culminated in one very crazy but lucrative weekend; Applefestival. A festival where the town of 500 people hosts about 60,000 visitors! I relished in the beauty of Lake Superior and some of the best fall colors ever. My folks have a 29' sailboat and I made it out on the lake with them twice. I spent a great deal of my limited free time loosing myself in the woods hunting wild mushrooms. One interesting day I was just missed by a couple of charging does. I also saw my first wolf in the area since their recent comeback. What spooky majestic creatures!

Now, I'm back in Appleton living with Aña and her mom. I'm back to work on the house. This time fixing up old windows and getting the house ready to be winterized. The nights are ominously starting to get cold. I'm sure it won't be long before snow flurries are in the air. At least winter will give us time to figure out where we want to go next. The hot springs of Oregon sure sound good. Maybe next summer will do.