Why I am Grateful for my Wife

I’m looking forward to writing this down. I think about it all the time and lately I have been making a conscious effort to think about it more often because it’s a pleasant thing to think about. I want to spend more time thinking and celebrating the things I am grateful for.

I am grateful for my wife because she took a huge leap of faith and became the mother to our girls after the suicide of their biological mother. This one is about as huge as they get. She has brought love and stability to their lives and for a long while now she is their mummy. A few weeks ago she celebrated a significant milestone – she has been Melody’s mom for longer than her biological mom was while she was alive. My limited vocabulary is probably not sufficient to express my gratitude on this subject.

I am grateful for my wife because it is in large measure because of her that I have stopped drinking. I made the choice but she was the catalyst in my being able to make that choice. She has helped me create the space to go on to achieve my dreams.

I am grateful for my wife because she makes me be better through love. She truly believes in my potential to create good in this world and encourages and supports me exactly how I need it. She certainly isn’t afraid to give me a shove when I need it either.

I am grateful for my wife because she is my best friend. There is no one in the entire world that I would rather hang out with. No one else is even close. Getting to hang out with your best friend every day is really wonderful.

I am grateful for my wife because she supports some of my weird habits like the fact that I exercise kind of a ludicrous amount. I tend to do everything to the extreme which, considering she is the opposite of that, could cause some tension. She knows me and supports me. I’m working on the extreme thing. Well, I’m kinda working on it.

I’m grateful for my wife because she is so damn competent and everything she does. She is German. It’s illogical not to be competent when most activities have a clear process that will yield a high probability of the expected outcome being realized. In other words – she fixes all the shit that breaks around here. When I say “breaks around here” I mean that I break around here.

I’m grateful for the fact that she puts some of the things I do that drive her crazy in context. Like how I somehow leave coconut oil on the cupboard handles or spill the odd frozen berries on the ground or any other of the 100 things I do on a daily basis. She handles the great offense to her German-ass self like a champ. She loves me and I love her and that is what matters most. That and that I clean that shit up when she points it out.

I am grateful for my wife because she is a gourmet cook. Like – GOURMET COOK. It’s unbelievable what she is capable of creating in the kitchen. Sunday dinners with my parents have been an integral part of our week and every time it seems she is coming up with something new and amazing. She has actually made me eat far less meat and I think I might be inching towards being the occasional vegetarian. There are quite a few days where I eat no meat now. That is all Tanja.

I am grateful for my wife because she understands and supports the fact that I move into the garage while she is PMS’d. Ok – that is not really true. She does acknowledge the fear I live in for a week or so a month. I think I might be grateful for that or something.

I am grateful that she is on a constant voyage of self-improvement and discovery. She is constantly trying new things and pursuing her interests – yoga, meditation, herbal medicine, animals etc. I am basically married to a Good Witch and I am very, very grateful for that. I find now that if I am not feeling well I want her to prescribe me some of her tinctures and teas. Knowing how I was before that is almost unbelievable.

I’m grateful for my wife because she is hot as hell.

I am grateful for my wife because she is my partner and this journey is our journey. Our life is unfolding together. We’re building our dreams together. We’re overcoming our fears together. We’re raising our kids together. Knowing I’m never alone is something to be grateful for.

I’m grateful for the fact that I took the time to write down why I am grateful for my wife.

I’m Back

It’s been about 2 years since I’ve written my last blog post and it’s rather remarkable how much has changed. So much so that I’ve been thinking about blogging again for some time but I had too many thoughts racing through my brain to formulate a strategy about what to write about. One thing is certain though, my belief that my experiences can help others is growing stronger with every passing day.

I freed myself from alcohol about 8 months ago and the enormity of the impact of that is still sinking in every day. It’s been an interesting journey to say the least – one full of opportunity, some fear and a lot of love. There will be many posts on this because I believe this is the single biggest decision I have made that has given me the space to focus on creating the life I truly want. I was rereading some of my older posts where I would mention booze and it just jumps off the page at me at how much I rationalized everything. Again, more on that later but suffice it to say – once I realized I that freedom was possible I started to believe that absolutely anything was possible.

My beautiful daughters are now 10 and 11. Melody is on the left and Chloe is on the right. They are developing into absolutely wonderful human beings. Chloe is a competitive cheerleader and it is pretty much he singular focus. They actually won the national championships in their category a few weeks ago – after finishing last or close to it in their previous competitions. Melody is Melody. There is no one quite like her. She is wise beyond her years and is caring, funny and kind – although she is developing quite the 10 year old attitude – nothing out of the ordinary – she is just working out her place in the universe.

My beautiful wife Tanja continues to evolve into the Good Witch she was always meant to be. She spends her days involved with the community around our girls’ school, creating tinctures, studying herbs and creating beauty in the world. Oh – and she has taken her cooking to an entirely different level. Things are wonderful – but I believe we have just scratched the surface of what is possible.

Fitness wise I’m pretty much as obsessed as ever. Nah – make that more so. I’ve recently fallen in love with road biking. So much so that I bought myself a Cannondale SuperSix 3 Ultegra and have been riding back and forth to work most days. It’s 30km each way so that’s a great way to get in some miles. I have some “races” coming up in a few months. I’m looking forward to completing a few centuries this year (160km).

And there you have it. I’m back and better than ever and I’m so hopeful that perhaps by reading what’s to come that in some small way you will be too.

P.S. My wife made us get a dog. Chesney. I think I kinda like him.