"A Little Bit Goes a Long Way"

[John and Janet Ruiz]

I've been thinking about that phrase recently. It's a thought with a meaning I've found to be very true over the years.

So often I think in terms of Big - big answers, big problems, big deliverance, big change, big actions, big results. Yet, looking back it seems it's the little things that so often have had the largest, long term effects in my life. In that way they've been magnified far beyond the perception I had of them at the time.

Not to say that AAA Grade sized stuff hasn't had it's place. Only that if I compared life to say the ocean, I've had many, many more small waves come into shore day after day than big ones. I remember the big ones. Right now I'm pondering the others.

My wife and I celebrated 39 years of marriage March 27th - that's a biggie. Everything past the first one's been a milestone, for that matter. Now I look back and think - 10 years - shoot, 10 years? I can do that standing up without breaking a sweat. That's nothin', y'know? I don't start the meter till 20. (tha's a joke).

But it's been the accumulation of each that's amounted to the grand total - all the steps, one after the other that have made this year what it is. Can't do 10 without doing 9. Each follows the one before it and each has at times been very, very different from the year before. Here we are though, and counting.

I met my wife the first time on the steps of a local high school auditorium in Oakland, CA, after a high school "dance", with other friends. We only brushed paths that time, quickly, didn't even know her name. Then a year or so later, a guy showed up at a gig my band was playing and talked to me afterwards about coming over to Alameda and jamming. So I went and we jammed. His girlfriend at that time (who he also married and to whom he's still married) came by to listen and brought her best friend - Janet. Janet and I met and afterwards I got her phone number from my new best buddy - think she'd mind if I called? I did, we got together and the rest is, now, history. It didn't take me long to realize "this was it", albeit at the tender age of 17. Everyone I met that day has figured into my life in huge ways.

Now it seems it couldn't have happened any other way. It's all I know and all I want to know, really. A little tiny moment in time that has rippled out, growing in quality if not in speed. If anything I'd slow it down, y'know? Time can seem to go so fast looking at the events that fill it but life really seems to exist in a timeless place of it's own.

On average God's been good to me in the little things, events, people, actions. At the time I seem to go through them not even realizing what's really happening until later. As I age I've also found some degree of wisdom to recognize the golden moments when I'm in them. Like now. I'm only a thought, a blink, an action away from...something good... : )

[John Richeson]

Its hard when they leave but a natural progression of things I suppose. They'd kill me for this one but this is a private site so they'll never know. This was a mere 18 years ago. Yes, as your theme says....."A Little Bit Goes A Long Way". So true, so very true. We gotta enjoy these great simple moments.

[John and Janet Ruiz]

Thanks John. It's tough I know, we've been through and continue to go through a similar cycle with our kids. They'll build their lives a day at a time just as we have. Your daughters will come to appreciate their parents even more as they years go on because of the energy and love you and Hope have invested in them. You are a family.

Little moments of recognition echo back as they grow up and on. Our daughter Jennifer is planning a move to southern California in a month or so. We have a dresser that was here when we bought the house, left in the garage by the previous owners. It's a nice dresser, all wood and simple construction, but had a coat of ghastly brown paint on it. Jennifer wanted to keep it when we moved in, so we made a project out of it together, stripping and sanding it, then staining and finishing it. It came out nice and has held up, but needed some work done on it. When this move first came up she told Janet she wanted it if that was okay, and said "Dad and I refinished it together. I want to keep it".

Just a few words but it meant a lot to hear that she remembers it the way I do, time spent together that had value we invested into something.

There are many things like that for us. We still have some of the gifts that were given to us for our wedding. We invited all our friends and family to our wedding and left it open for anyone to come that wanted to, and over 200 showed up. We had a great time. So we got some gifts and some still hang on our walls and are out here and there.

Recently we opened up a set of steak knives, a really nice set that we received but had never used. They've gone everywhere we have all these years though, still in the sealed box. After 38 years we opened them up and that time all those years ago flooded back, renewing the present with the realities of our past together. Might seem weird to some but some things are worth...waiting for.

I've got those pic's around somewhere too, in a file. You guys looked great! I'll have to roust them up.

[John Richeson]

What a great set of words. It moves me. Expecially today when our daughter left home for Boston after living in these parts for 22 years. We are sad on one hand. But on the other hand it's life and she needs to find her own path. It would be nice if our children lived next door all our lives. But did we? Look at some of the adventures we found? Some were awesome, some were hurtful. We lived our lives in the unique manner we chose. If we followed our parents dreams we might have been most miserable.

Yes, to cherish the moment(s)! Thats a goal always. I like to believe we are having a great life. It's what we make of it. Then its gone in a flash. I am trying hard to make some moments memorable not only for me but for our children and family and friends as well. I think this very site is a by-product of trying to capture some unique places in time that we all experienced. A living photo album to review if you will.

John, what a story about you and Janet. We love you both. Tell her for us. Here's to another 39 years! You ARE having a great life in my opinion, brother.

This is the place where I want to post a few pictures of when we visited ya'll in San Fran but we all think we look like crap, the wind was blowin on that Fisherman's Wharf and we had a few glasses of fine wine, so I won't. Maybe another time.

More ramblings later when I am over my child separation sadness.