It's The Little Things In Life That Count

Ron is back in San Diego, and although life is far from normal, we're moving in that direction. He's in a halfway house at the moment and should be home within a week. In the mean time, he was able to get a hygiene pass on Sunday to go shopping for necessities and stop for lunch. We had to tell the halfway house where we were going, with names and addresses, and bring receipts to verify where we'd been. It's a bit inconvenient, but nothing I can't live with.

We went to Costco to do a little shopping and stopped for lunch at Brett's afterward. Here's what I noticed. Ron has slowed down considerably. He used to be in constant motion. He was always in a big hurry to get going and often impatient waiting in line for service. Boy, have things changed. We wandered through Costo, stopping to look at everything. He was like a kid in a candy store. He's only been away for 18 months, but there was so much that seemed new to him. We went to Brett's for lunch, sat on the patio and enjoyed some delicious beef ribs. There was a woman by herself at another table, on her cell phone the whole time we were there. In the past Ron might not even have noticed this, but having just returned to the real world, he found her annoying and rude. He commented that sitting and relaxing over a meal, rather than hurrying to finish your food in 5-8 minutes, was was such a great pleasure. There are so many little things that we all take for granted.

Ron is so much more relaxed. No more, "Why didn't you call John?" or "Why haven't you had the fence fixed?" I think he finally realizes how unimportant all those things are in the grand scheme of things. He is focused on the here and now, and although he is definitely planning for the future, it's right now that is most important, and all the little things that happen each day make him appreciative of the life he has.