Van's Social stuff: “525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?: How do you measure forty of them? I sit here this morning reflecting on all that has come and gone, and think about all that has happened to get me to this point right now. It is hard to see how everything I’ve experienced has shaped this moment. Everything from riding bikes to Summer Hills Park to play football to sitting down for dinner last night has created the greatest life I could have ever hoped for. That is not saying that I enjoyed all of it, but I don’t regret a moment. I have seen things no one should ever see and things no one could ever imagine. Shakespeare wrote in Othello “…antres vast and deserts idle, rough quarries, rocks, hills whose heads touch Heaven.” That is what I’ve seen both literally and figuratively. I have seen deserts of despair and hopelessness that seemed to go on forever and only lead into the darkest deepest caves of loss and doubt. I’ve been in pits of rubble where it seemed impossible to gain footing only to encounter huge rocks that were daunting and unbearable to climb, then arriving at mountains that rose up and up, higher and higher with no hope of reaching the other side. But I made it across, through, around, under, and over these obstacles and was able to see the beauty of the prettiest painted deserts of New Mexico, briefly encountered the deep and amazingly haunting Caverns in Carlsbad. I’ve snuck into the gypsum quarry and sat in the white rocks drinking 40s. I have climbed the rocks and boulders in the foothills. And every day for the last several years I have watched the Sandias reach up into the clouds as if trying to peek into heaven, and if there were no clouds it seemed as if they were just there to let me know that they would always be there for me. I have seen births, and laughter, and tears, violence, pain, hurt, dancing, singing, rejoicing… I have seen the inside of mansions with gold lined swimming pools and jail cells with crack paint and blood stains… I have seen death. I have seen too much death. Deaths of countless friends who were taken too soon, deaths of beautiful souls that lived full, rich lives… The death of my father… The death of my child…And all of this has become the foundation on which my amazing life rests today. The bedrock of my Now. Now is a miraculous thing. It always is and never was… Now I am the husband of the best person I have ever hoped to bring into my life, the brother to the best sister anyone could hope for, the father to the two best kids in the world… and most importantly I have finally learned how to be a real friend. An unselfish, loving, caring friend who will go out of his way for you if you need me to. A friend who knows when to speak up, shut up, and stand up when needed. If you are reading this then you are my friend and I love you. Thank you for being a part of my life!