The familiar adage about clarity of vision looking back should have a tag line to include encouragement to look back often. Seeing our choices in memory is a gift of wisdom. What was held with one emotion can be reborn into something new – we can shake off grudges, repair brokenness, and polish rusty thoughts and feelings.

Here in these pages, I reflect on the longest transformation from old to new that I have undertaken to date – our whole house remodel. Each wall torn down and rebuilt, every dream imagined and brought to fruition, can be seen as a reinventing of self. What’s more, the process built a strong family from the foundation up and clad the marriage of two very head-strong individuals with supports to withstand the fierce winds of the world.

So move forward, but don’t be afraid to look back and see life clearer – maybe in the way that providence intended.