The Ricketts’ Season Greetings

A man [or woman!] practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies, and adopting new viewpoints. -Wilfred Peterson

By that definition, this pandemic season of life has been an adventure requiring rigorous practice. Routine-shattering, it provided unexpected time to reconsider the activities and priorities that shape our days. Our world got smaller and simpler, and also larger in meaningful ways. Books and Netflix allowed us to travel before we could do so safely. We deepened relationships with each other and with neighbors. We explored hobbies and developed viewpoints on issues we could never have imagined we’d need to consider.

Dave took every opportunity to go fly fishing and learned to tie his own flies. He used his woodworking skills to make himself a standing desk for all those Zoom meetings and also a live edge Redwood desk for his office. He celebrated 15 years at Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church with a summer sabbatical that included a fly-fishing trip with C23 to Montana and Idaho, a month-long US road trip with Siv and Q17, and a backyard reno (still in progress).

Siv dove headlong into stories, reading widely, writing daily, and taking writing classes. Her articles have been published in The Joyful Life Magazine and Fathom Mag. She is building her writing platform through her blog, email list (sign up on the blog), and microblogging on Instagram in hope of signing with an agent/publisher for a book she’s written. She and an artist-friend have also created a 31-day devotional journal available on Etsy. Her favorite book this year is The Overstory by Richard Powers (note: as an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases).

C23 works full-time at the East Bay Vivarium, the nation’s oldest and leading exotic pet store. He’s in charge of the ball python program, including breeding for new genetic colorations. He keeps adding to his own collection; in addition to his red tail boa, ball pythons, and reticulated pythons, we also have two terrariums of frogs (red eyed tree frogs, mantellas, and a green tree frog). On his days off, he’s learning to golf.

Q17 is thrilled to be back at school for his senior year, especially since Zoom didn’t work as effectively for music classes. He plays trumpet and sousaphone in the jazz band, tuba in symphonic band, drums in the church youth group band, leads the school pep band, and works on the church tech team. He was a great sport putting up with his parents for an entire month on the road, and he particularly enjoyed New Orleans jazz and Memphis blues. He also took a pack-rafting trip in Montana with Scouts and got laryngitis at Scout camp near Lake Tahoe.

We hope to catch up with you and share new adventures together in the new year!