One of my passions in life is creating big moments for myself such as extended family vacations, endurance races, or fun day trips. These moments are usually brought about by careful planning and preparation and are different from my normal routine. I thoroughly enjoy plotting out these life events to take during the year and setting my sights on them. In fact, one of my main reasons behind creating this blog in the first place was to have a consolidated outlet to share those stories and memories about these types of moments with other. However, as much as I love taking trips and writing about them, the majority of my time is spent in one general area with my wife and kids just simply existing in that place. This place is our house and the surrounding town in which we have established our “life base camp”. Our home is where we spend all of our time in between all of the larger moments and it is in these moments, what I like to dub the “in-between” that life really happens.
During the in-between, one gets to really experience the passage of time. It is where you get older and hopefully wiser as a person, your kids grow up, you cook countless meals, you sleep soundly, pray relentlessly, and dream about all those big moments that you would like to achieve in your life. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a restless person and love to be outside doing some type of physical activity. Our home area offers plenty of opportunity to quench my appetite for adventure with a host of nature parks, trails, and quiet backcountry roads for cycling making my in-between moments particularly exciting. The only challenge for me is finding the time to be able to do all the things that I enjoy. Fortunately with hard work and a good bit of planning, even with kids, there are ways to be able to have ample time read, exercise, play music, and have alone time with my wife.
Some of the highlights of my in-between moments, besides just being able to spend quality time with the family, consist of several small day trips that allow me to get out of the house and satisfy my urge to be in motion. For me that often consists of getting up early (around 5am) before everyone is awake and taking a short run or bike ride before I have to leave for work. At work, with one hour lunch breaks, I maximize every second by heading straight from the office or even driving over to some local park to get in a bike or run workout. On weekday afternoons, I’ll often take the twins outside to play in our backyard or even take them on a short golf cart or stroller ride to the park to let them gallop around on the playground. With twins, just going to the park is in itself is an experience and once we make it back home after an hour of play, we are all worn out and in need of a break. On weekends, I satisfy my itch to move by taking the kids nap time as my one time during the week where I can have at least one and half hours of uninterrupted time. Usually, I’ll have to do some type of outside chore around the house, like mow the grass or chop wood, but if I time it right and knock out those tasks during the week, I can take a much longed for bike ride for about 15 to 25 miles. I enjoy these moments and cherish them. These moments help me to realize just how special it is to be able to enjoy these in-between moments.
During all of my various travels, no matter how grand the destination, there is at some point on the journey the thought of being homesick, of longing to be in that one place where you know you don’t have to worry about anything and where you have all that you need in one place. It is truly comforting to know that one has a home to come back to whenever they want. Even more comforting is knowing that your home is full of people that you love. As I sit here writing this blog my mind drifts to distant lands and unknown places that I have yet to explore but at the same time my heart is fully satisfied with experiencing my in-between moments relishing the memories that my family and I are creating each and every day at home.
Hunter W. Potts 