A Happy Home

A Happy Home

John Paul Derryberry

I stood in the basement of my house after just having rearranged a bunch of items to create space for the next phase of our house. We have decided to turn the house we bought 7 years ago into the home of our dreams over the next 3 to 4 months. With construction, one never knows if 3 to 4 months means that it means delays and missed timelines. The last time we did this was to fix some basement plumbing, and the girls got to ride their little balance bikes all around the basement. They laughed, hooted, and hollered with delight. And I had the first tug on my heart at the thought of life passing by too quickly.

I grew up in a tremendously happy home in Colebrook, Ohio. One filled with the Derrybery version of love, laughter, and support. It’s often in the opening chapters of my stories that I had this magical time with a great family. Yes, there was tragedy too after in my teen years that takes up a chunk of storytelling, but it is the blending of the happenings, the tragedy, and the healing that lead my to who I am today.  As my wife and I ready our house for its next renovation, I got a little choked up at the foundation we have laid down for my girls. Our home is a happy one, a full-circle moment for me, one foot in the memory of a young elementary kid on Troutman Rd in Colebrook, and the other foot squarely in wondering what memories my girls will think of when they are 43.

I do not think we realize how hard it is to thread the needle of life and have both a happy childhood and a happy adulthood. There are so many twists, turns, pitfalls, and people that pass through our lives. At numerous moments, in this moment with my wife, I’m having to wipe away a small tear as we change this house. The house that has given my girls such a great start. Now, our house is old and needs updates, but never forget that adding new things doesn't mean getting back everything from the old. We will be happy in the new space, but it will be a different kind of happy. That’s how life goes, from one milestone to the next, hoping for the next phase to be great, or at least good enough to teach you the correct lesson for the next phase.

So, as we continue packing up this phase and moving into the next. I will take a few extra moments to appreciate what this old house did for my family. It gave us a place to create a happy foundation. A place to create memories that my girls can return to, no matter how fuzzy the details become, because of how young they were when we moved in. The emotions will be crystal clear, and that’s always the most important. They were loved; we laughed, we danced, and, through some temper tantrums, we recovered and got off to a great start as a family.  We are ready for what’s next with this place we call home, but we will never forget what the old place did for us, which created happiness and love. I hope the same for you wherever you find yourself today, or at least that you are moving in that direction.