Letting Go of ‘Great’ for ‘Once in a Lifetime’

To live a great life is all that we can ever ask, and for many, once it is achieved, even the thought of leaving it behind is heresy.  Once established in safety, routine, and community, many people find that they have all they’ll ever need.  Still, there exists a group of outliers, searchers, and seekers who are unsatisfied with the singular great life and carry a keen eye for what could be the next opportunity.  Upon sighting, they set sail from the island they have worked so hard to populate and start all over again as they look towards a brand new life.  

We have clearly fallen prey to this adventurous eye.  We started our family in Utah with the Wasatch Mountains and the red rock desert as our homeland.  We never really wanted to leave the majestic nature and the dirt forest roads that seemed to become a part of us.  Ski season was a way of life and the summertime meant as many road-trips as we could fit.  Our community ran deep with friends and family close by and we had even secured a small house on a little piece of land not far from the open space that felt like home.  We had job opportunities, a thriving band, and the little piece of ‘ours’ that we had wanted for so long. Still, when the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move to Washington came, we were gone within a few months. 

In Washington, we built a beautiful community and fell in love with the drastic landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.  The waters of the Puget Sound carried us in their tidal currents and a sight of Tahoma didn’t go by without exclamation.  It is still the most beautiful mountain we’ve laid eyes upon.  As we first descended Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, the size of the Cascades called us in, and we’ll forever remember the riverbed where we picnicked on that drive.  With rainforests scattered throughout the neighborhoods, nightly walks felt like a trek into a Jurassic world.  We explored the type of green foliage that only comes at the cost of heavy seasonal rainfall, and it was a novel sight to us desert dwellers.    

We found community on the eastside of Lake Washington, just 20 minutes away from Seattle, but much quieter and with more space to park.  Within months we had made friends that later became family and helped us set sail on this latest adventure, even though it would lead to a hard goodbye.  

For nearly 6 years, we immersed ourselves in great friends, great jobs, great adventures, and Sam even played with some great musicians at classic Seattle music venues.  In the midst of this great life, fate met us with another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would set us on a new adventure.