This past weekend, Barb and I went to Texas for a marriage retreat (there will be a stand alone post all about it at some point). We flew into Austin, a place where I spent most of the first few years of my life. I am told they were wonderful years. I, clearly, don't remember much of it.

I do remember Texas, though. And there were parts of home that fit like the leather Wells Lamont work gloves I used to wear on the ranch when I was a kid. There were parts of Texas that felt more like boots two sizes too small. 

I am not the same person I was when I left Texas for good in 1999. In some ways I am better, in some ways not as good. But better, good - these are judgment words. And I am trying to do better about not judging myself. What I can say definitively is that I am changed.