Equinox: B. J. Wilson
Nancy and I had never actually taken two full weeks and traveled anywhere together, not in thirty four years of marriage. In fact, we had never flown together, not to any destination, let alone a vacation. Somehow, to my sincere regret, it never seemed important and there was never enough time or money for us to do so. There were children and school, my work, Nancy's restaurant and constant moving; it seems we moved a lot without ever going anywhere. But, in 2006, after my mother passed away, and at the urging of Nancy's sister, Peggy and her husband, Gary, (we call him Butch), we decided to change all that. We decided to take two weeks of vacation and have an adventure together, fly out west and see the Grand Canyon, get to know each other again in new surroundings and see if we would fall in love.
There comes a time when the hum-drum of life becomes overwhelming. A time when the routines of your life actually cause you to become unbalanced, unwell. While you're young and things are moving in a good, upward direction, your life tends to become a groove. Before you know it, your kids are entering high school and the groove has turned into a rut and, without your notice, the rut turns to a pit and the pit soon becomes a dark and comfortable norm.
It's a question of balance and I'm put in mind of The Moody Blues, (they're still around you know), and "The Balance". This trip wasn’t about getting away for a few days, it was A Question of Balance. Our lives had spiraled into a pit over the years since our son, Chris, died. The fact is, we just never had fun anymore. We never tested ourselves anymore, life had been enough of a test. So, we never stretched the envelope of our lives, the way we had when we owned a houseboat. Life had overwhelmed us. In fact, our lives had become a form of living death but the time had come for resurrection. Peggy and Butch came to offer us that opportunity and, although we hesitated at first, I'm so glad that we decided to step out of our dark, comfortable pit and breathe the fresh air of something new.
