6 Months, 3 Months, 3 Months

I have this theory that the ideal living situation would be to live 6 months of the year in New York City, 3 months of the year in a ski town and 3 months of the year somewhere in Europe. Obviously, to each his own, but to me that sounds like a pretty good plan.

A crazy thing happened while we were in Vail. We just had an amazing ski day. 55 and sunny, not a cloud in the sky, yet we were still skiing. Impossible to complain. We had met a really nice girl that was a transplant from NYC and now Vail local who played an amazing tour guide for the day. While we were skiing I told her about my 6 Months, 3 Months, 3 Months theory. She grew up in New York, lived in the City and now lived in Vail; I figured she would appreciate my theory. No big deal, just another person I told one of my theories to.

Then the craziest thing happened. Brandon and I were outside sitting in the hot tub and this older man came over to us. He was old and using a crutch, but looked young in a foreign sort of way. He had a massive scar down the middle of his chest and you can tell he’s been through the war literally and figuratively, at the very least you can tell he has the hard earned gift of perspective. He gets in and starts talking – he has a heavy accent but he’s well spoken even though he speaks slowly. He mentions he has a place in New York City on the Upper East Side. We tell him we live in the City and he tells us he has a place in Vail also and points over in the distance. He says “I live 6 months of the year in New York, I live 3 months in Vail, and 3 months in Israel.” It dawns on me at that moment that this man is living my theory, making it a law. In my mind, in our short encounter, it appears to me he has won the game.

He continues to offer us the wisdom that only someone who has lived 4x longer than you can prophesize and he offers us a great story. He says, “the older Jews have a story about why the Messiah hasn’t come yet. Every year during the High Holidays and then again during Passover we repeat the phrase ‘next year in Jerusalem.’ Well, every year the Messiah is getting ready to come and then when he’s ready we tell him next year in Jerusalem. He is ready; we are always the ones telling him next year, next year.”

Despite the infinite sequence of events that had to transpire to make this encounter possible, this man entered our life at that very moment and provided us with perspective that you just don’t get everyday. I have no doubt that he was a sign. I just don’t know what it was a sign for.

Maybe it’s just time to stop waiting to live the life we want…