Marriage & Magic
At dinner the other night, our girls were gently teasing my wife about her career. I took the opportunity to tell them, and their brother, a couple stories.
When I met their mother she came down to New Zealand to live with me. We lived in a big house overlooking the water. My place was a Multisport hub and there were always athletes around.
In the house there was a magical blue wallet. This wallet always had a stack of cash in it. The cash was used to buy groceries.
Our favorite place to shop was Gordon’s Grocer. Gordon was a Scot, who made a lot of money selling us boxes of fruits, veggies, smoked chicken and eggs. We trained a lot, and ate even more.
Somehow the blue wallet never ran out of cash.
It was a magical time.
Our first Christmas together (2004), their mother used her last $50 to buy me a pair of Ugg boots from a shop in Sumner.
Sumner happens to be our oldest daughter’s middle name, what a coincidence?!
The $50 was well spent. I loved those boots and wore them until they had holes in the bottom.
At that point, I gestured over my shoulder.
See that fridge?
It’s magical too.
The fridge is like the blue wallet. I make money and their mother keeps it full. It’s a part of my life that continues to work well.
In life, you will come across men and women who are extremely good at getting stuff done, and making money from doing that stuff. This isn’t about Mommies and Daddies. This is about people who are able to make money in the world. You might be one of those people. When we are making money from something we like to do, it seems magical. Let’s call these people Money Magicians.
The magicians like all sorts of stuff. Some want to be rich, some want to go to the Olympics, one wants to get us to Mars, some want to help other people… there’s all kinds of magic in the world.
I think the best magicians are wizards. Wizards use their magic to create a wonderful life around themselves. The wizards have realized that life is better with other people. That’s why I used my magic to keep the blue wallet full. Buying groceries for my pals was a good use of magic. I received far more than I gave.
Once you realize you’re dealing with magic, rather than money. It’s easy to see where this might be going.
In addition to keeping the fridge full, Monica created my kids.
Truly magical.
There is nothing like child birth… wow, that’s a little person coming out of my wife…
I was extremely fortunate. As a young man, I realized that money wasn’t going to create the life I wanted. So I changed course and started thinking more deeply about where I wanted to take myself.
We can be the wizard, or we can help the wizard.
…and don’t assume spending $50 on Uggs in exchange for having someone cover your expenses for life isn’t magical.
Love you babe.
Take me to Greatest Hits
Great story and life lessons along the way. Money doesn’t buy happiness and happiness isn’t always around the corner…it’s typically right in front of you.
Beautiful. It is wonderful feeling to have magicians and wizards with us.