Moving Day

Today we move global headquarters from its current address on Ashland Avenue in River Forest to Oak Park, Illinois.  That of course means the house goes along with it.  Mrs. English and myself moved into our house almost 25 years ago.  Back then we had a little boy and a brand new baby.  My parents came up to help us move and to watch our children while we did all the things you need to do when moving into your new home.  We were 32 and 31 and I was a young stock broker trying to make it in the world at the investment firm of Kidder Peabody & Co.  If you had asked me then whether I would be staying that long in our current home I would have said no way.  

But stay we did.  Lumen Capital Management, LLC moved it's "Global HQ" to our home in 2005, about the same time as I started this blog.  Along the way we also added a third child, made great friends and watched our children pass from nursery school all the way through college from that same place.  Back when I moved the business into my house I would have told you I would be coming out of the place in a box.  Like my initial thoughts on how long we'd stay when moving in, I was wrong.  It is not the first time I've been wrong and will not be the last.

Times change and my children have all grown up.  They are spread out all across the country now and are starting lives of their own as young adults.  Someday I imagine, if Providence smiles down upon us it might be Mrs. English and myself sitting on one of our kid's porches taking care of their babies while the frantically try to tie up all the loose ends that come with moving into a new place.  

In our case we have come full circle.  We are selling it to a lovely young family with two little girls and a baby on the way, just the sort of people we'd hoped would buy our place.  Our big wonderful house needs little people again.   It is time to say good-bye to our house.

It is said that "childhood is the long process of saying good-bye and in the end it is the parents who have the hardest time letting go of their children's past".  That is certainly true for me in terms of selling the place.  A friend of mine says that the house stays but the memories come with you.  That is  correct, but the ghosts of memories past stay and some part of me will always be tied to the place.  What is coming not only for us but for Lumen Capital is exciting and I can't wait to share some of that with you in the following weeks.  I want to also take a moment to say thank you to all my friends, clients and acquaintances who have made the last 25 years at our home so wonderful.  I look forward to carrying on with you from our new spot in Oak Park.  In the meantime please forgive me if I take one long last look before I say good-bye this weekend.  We move today but close on the place next Tuesday.

"Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.....There was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. "It's a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."  Bilbo Baggins.  "The Fellowship of the Ring."

"I will not say do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."  Gandalf-"The Return of the King." 

*Long Kleenex and Memories!  

Back with a single post at some point next week.  I'll let you know when we get back to a more regular schedule.