Nostalgia, you are a seductive liar

Nostalgia is a seductive liar. ~George Wildman Ball 

It's true. Lately, I have had quite a few run in with her, and frankly, I don't like her.

Why do we do this? Why do we always remember the past so fondly? Why are we are so willing to forget the bad and idealize the good? I don't know the answer to that, dear friends, but I can tell you that I am just as guilty as anyone.

I am not particularly unhappy about my present life but lately I have found myself day dreaming about the way things used to be. I miss those times. I miss the things we did, the friends we had and the time we had left. The boys were young - or at least younger - and it seemed like forever before they would be ready to be tossed from the nest to learn to fly on their own. Now, they are 20, 18 and 16 and we have so little time left.

Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~Will Rogers 

 I miss our standing park days with our Detroit friends. There was nothing better than hanging at the park, kicking back Diet Cokes, listening to stories from when Marie's grandma was raising her boys, and just letting the sun beat down on us. Life was good. What I never bother to remember is that when we lived in Detroit, we were pretty poor and I had some really rough bouts of seasonal depression. We hated the house we lived in and felt trapped. Sure, we were surrounded by all of these amazing things to do (yes, Detroit really does have amazing things to do) but we rarely had the money to do them. Life was hard in Detroit.

People seem to get nostalgic about a lot of things they weren't so crazy about 

the first time around. ~Author Unknown 

 I miss our house in Midland. It was a big house with room to spread out in. The boys had the man cave, I had a garden and spent almost the whole summer outside or inside entertaining friends. I had a big herb garden right outside the kitchen door and everything I cooked in the house tasted amazing - if we bothered to cook in the house. Most of the time, we were grilling. The community center, grocery store, friend's houses, nature center, farmer's market and so much more was within a few minutes bike ride. The library was amazing and rivaled the library system in Macomb county. Of course, the house was creepy and I am almost positive it was haunted. The kitchen layout was insane, the basement had moisture issues and the only bathroom upstairs was right off of the living room. (!!) The family next to us went from happy, cute couple with a few kids to cheating, divorcing, abusive and not paying child support in just a few months. The heating bills in the winter would have easily topped $400, and I would have still had that pesky seasonal depression to worry about.

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but 

the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

So now, here we are at that strange time in every parents life. I yearn for the past while being excited about the future. We are going to spend the next few days answering a few questions and then on Sunday we are going to sit down and work on a new five year plan. Maybe once our future is on paper and a little more solidified, I will not need to think so much about the past.