Discontent

Discontent. 

Thomas A. Edison said, "Discontent is the first necessity of progress" In his book, The Happiness of Pursuit, Chris Guillebeau points out, "When discontent sets in, its time to make some changes."

This got me to thinking about the changes we have made recently, and were they based on discontent? If you were to ask me why we moved I could have given you a whole litany of reasons; closer to Chuck's work, a too big house, less responsibility all seemed valid reasons to sell the house.  

Except, if the truth be known, I think it had more to do with discontent.  Each time we ventured out into our community we found ourselves increasingly aggravated with the traffic. What used to take twenty minutes now took forty-five when retrieving a pizza from the west side of town. 

Our little neighborhood which had once been tucked away from all the hustle and bustle was being encroached upon by three massive apartment buildings, a new neighborhood and a huge grocery store. It just didn't feel like home any more. 

In addition, our aging home seemed quite content to demand any extra money we might have, and to be honest the lightning strike last fall, pretty much sealed the deal. 

I guess what I'm saying is that even though for several years we had kicked around the idea of downsizing, it wasn't until our discontent started to show that we seriously entertained the idea of change. 

Maybe, discontent is nature's way of having you take a second look at your life, and giving you the kick in the pants you might need to move forward.