While I was looking for a playmate, I found myself as well

There is a bit of lull in activity this morning so I am able to catch up on blogging. I think of lots of things I would like to blog about but am too tired at the end of the days to do them. When I decided to go on Match.com, I was looking for a cycling partner and someone willing to do “things” to stay active physically and mentally. I was SO VERY TIRED of a mostly sedentary lifestyle. I loved my work with Habitat for Humanity and Tools for Schools and working with my trainer twice a week but that left A LOT of hours for finding things to keep me active which I was not great at. For me to safely cycle in Nashville (except for neighborhood loops which get boring quickly) I have to drive 20-40 minutes which is a HUGE deterrent.

When I first drove up to Craig’s place on July 16th, The Garden, I stopped to take a photo of the mailbox as I had a sense “The Garden” at the end of the long driveway was going to have great significance for me and it has. It has brought me back to my rural roots and provides endless opportunities for mental and physical activity. While I knew from Habitat, that I loved going out and doing physically intense work 1-2 days per week, I did not know I would love it 6 days a week as well. His 2 acres requires lots of maintenance. Lots of trees mean lots of sticks. Over the past week, we have reclaimed an area along the driveway that had gone wild for the past few years. I have learned how pruning new branches low on the trees really changes how the entire area looks. I have learned to use a chain saw and manage large fires of sticks. I am exhausted at the end of the day.

Craig and I work easily side by side or independently depending on the activity. It is highly unlikely that Craig and I would have worked as a couple at any other time in our lives. He was a risk-taking “bad ass” in his early life (much like me – HAHA). Our paths would never have crossed and if they had we wouldn’t have been been able to get beyond the obvious differences.

Of course everything is different in building a relationship without the pressures of full-time employment. Staying present in the moment is easier. While I thoroughly loved taking care of patients, the cloak of being a physician and surgeon was never comfortable for me; neither was the role in the pharmaceutical industry or a scientific officer at the NIH. Even though I was very good in each of those roles and I am very proud of what I accomplished, in my later years of employment I had a sense that all of it had been “what I did” but it wasn’t “who I was”.

Grateful does not even begin to describe how I feel now with a life partner who likes and loves me for exactly who I am. The Garden that gives me a huge number of opportunities to be physically active and learn new things every day. He wants to stay active and try new things with me. I am the most comfortable I have ever been. I am happy.