I've been pondering some of my life's choices lately. Part of me wants to flat out call them mistakes, but I have this sneaking suspicion that wouldn't be fair.

I seem to have an astonishing ability to think that I know what I want and be completely wrong. I make the choices to get what I want and then find out when I have it that it wasn't what I envisioned at all.

And some of the choices I've made have extremely long lasting consequences.

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A long time ago, when Dougal asked his father how he'd know when he'd met the right girl to marry, his father told him -- When you're ready to get married the next girl will be the right one. Now I don't remember that we discussed this in any great detail, but I do remember that I thought it a particularly cynical observation on love and life. Funny thing is lately I've thought of this statement often. And after seven years of marriage, I understand it completely.