{"id":8051,"date":"2011-06-18T21:41:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T03:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromthefrontporch.com\/WPBlog\/?p=8051"},"modified":"2012-04-21T17:09:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T23:09:53","slug":"the-road-home-green-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/2011\/06\/the-road-home-green-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road Home: Green edition."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/beardogco.com\/WPBlog\/blogimages\/Jun11\/RoadHome0882.jpg\" target=\"Large\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/beardogco.com\/WPBlog\/blogimages\/Jun11\/RoadHome0882.jpg\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThe Road Home.  <\/p>\n<p>It is several days until the official start of Summer, but here in Montana it looks like Spring &#8211; the green hay, grasses, trees are still the bright green of Spring versus the mature green of early Summer.<\/p>\n<p>Time.<\/p>\n<p>I am very aware of time.  I am aware of how I spend it and of the limited commodity that it is.  For almost 26 years I have worked as an independent consultant, paid by the hour.  No one sets how many hours I work but me.  I have been fortunate to mostly have had the luxury of working as much as I&#8217;d care to.<\/p>\n<p>Through the Winter and into Spring as Karl&#8217;s condition waxed and waned I had to let go my fierce hold on time and just be there with him at his pace.  There was a day when I consciously said to myself, &#8220;just let go of the need to control the schedule and just be&#8230;the only time that matters is time with he and Bob&#8221;.  <\/p>\n<p>A funny thing happened when I gave up that tight hold.  Everything that needed to be done still got done.  I kept my work committments AND made enough money.  I ate and obtained supplies.<\/p>\n<p>But, I was sometimes spending what seemed like hours, in the woods with Karl, on slower walks&#8230;on more walks.  Most days were &#8220;normal&#8221; until early April but there were times that were not.  It is hard to remember exactly now and I don&#8217;t want to try.  What I do remember is the joy of just being with him and watching him smell the scent on the breeze, roll in the snow, play with a stick, look at me and smile.  <\/p>\n<p>I saved those moments.  Some are on this blog, some are in my mind and memory.  It was an idyllic time of intense awareness.<\/p>\n<p>And now.  Everything is different.  Bear is here.  He is a joy with a happy and generous spirit despite everything being very different for him, too.  Bob, Bear and I &#8211; we are all adjusting to a new routine, a new schedule, a new way of doing everything.  It is both good and challenging, but ultimately, it is &#8220;us&#8221; &#8211; the fambly* Summers &#8211; bright with the new growth of a new season: maturing as we grow together.<\/p>\n<p>The Road Home:  Green edition.<\/p>\n<p>*fambly&#8230;from the Pogo comic strip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Road Home. It is several days until the official start of Summer, but here in Montana it looks like Spring &#8211; the green hay, grasses, trees are still the bright green of Spring versus the mature green of early Summer. Time. I am very aware of time. I am aware of how I spend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-porch-musings","category-montana"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10356,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051\/revisions\/10356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}