Oregon Living

In December of 2004 I left a job and a life on the Oregon Coast for the promises of fun in the sun and more money in Florida. I had many expectations. What I didn’t expect was how much I would miss the Pacific Northwest.

I had lived in the Seattle area as well as Ashland in southern Oregon before moving to Newport. I enjoyed them all, for a myriad of reasons. I love the smell of the air, the sound of the forest, the vibrancy of the cities, the quiet of the wilderness. It’s in my blood now, it seems.

I understand that there are probably people who love living in Florida, and I wish them the best. I suppose that it has its points, hidden there somewhere. To me, its now in the same category as Southern California. A nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. But enough about that. What does it mean to be “home?”

It is interesting that I waited until my 40’s to decide I had a place to call home, but I am glad I did. And I am happy I decided to return to “my place.” I arrived back in Oregon in December of 2005, gone only a year. And I am very happy that my wife, who had never been to Oregon, loves it here too.

She didn’t find much to miss with Florida either. So we are both happy here in the Pacific Northwest. It is home. The variety of landscape, the beauty of mountains, desert, rain forest, and ocean. The fact that we voted “Blue.” I could go on and on.

I couldn’t think of a better place to be, to raise a family, to live and work. And that, I suppose, is the essence of home. Where you feel a connection to, where the land calls to you to come home. I have lived an existence of movement, even back to my childhood. My parents liked to move alot.

Now, I have every intention of staying in this area forever. My experience with living all over the place did give me a broader sense of the world, and for that I am grateful. On the other side of the coin, I am very happy to now have a sense of home.