Fifty, is it a Dead End? For me it has been a stark contracts and a heck of a ride for the past half century. I would like to give you a peek at my life on a time line mixed with elation, sadness, happiness, and sprinkles of some of the best memories in my life. Here it goes, every ten years in the life of me, Tim Eagle, a 50-year-old as of December 26th 2023.
1983… Ten years old. It was a wintery day; my mom took my youngest sister and I to the McMorran Theater in Port Huron. We watched a movie that would catapult itself, and engrain into a cult classic of today’s world. I watched what would become a personal favorite Christmas movie in my life. I watch it every year. The movie: A Christmas Story. Thanks, mom, for the memory and for that introduction. Both my mom and dad were doing a great job helping me get to adulthood, and this was just one of a plethora of memories. I would need a thousand or more pages to write what they have given, supported me in, and have nurtured me into.
1993… Twenty years old. I had jumped into a full-time job at a group home, financed my “new to me” 1990 Jeep Cherokee Sport, and was thrown into a whirlwind of adulthood. I was a lonely heart, rejection was at an all-time high and I delved into the world of writing dark poems, journal entries and short stories that I still own today, all inspired by my own melancholy, the moodiness of west coast grunge, and heavy metal radio. I was working midnights and there was a woman who worked days. She came into work happy, bubbly, and had an empathy for the clientele in the group home that was unmatched. I had a deep crush on this woman and did not realize then that I would eventually steal her for my own. I would weasel into her apartment, buy a home with her, and we would be happily married three years later. This was when I started spreading my wings.
2003… Thirty years old. Maria and I had flourished in marriage. Two cats, a dog named Barney, and three children. Our house was getting smaller as our family grew. Maria and I purchased a bigger house thirty miles north. After my six-years at St. John Hospital in Detroit, I landed at Marwood Nursing Home in accounts receiving not realizing that 2003 would be a year of change. I shook off the number crunching and was hired as a Team Lead for Target. This sealed my work life for the next sixteen years. Little did I know our family was going to grow from three children to seven in the summer of 2004. In 2006 we acquired our little “Dark Nest”, a tumbledown one room school house. Dull moments turned into a thing of the past.
2013… Forty years old. Time was an endless whirlwind. Technology had changed from emailing to texting and morphed fast into social media. Music, movies, and everything we knew were evolving into places I never imagined. Our middle child had just graduated and had gone off to trade school. Our two oldest were renting apartments, and our four youngest were thriving in school, each smart and making us proud every day. Earlier in my life I started a small writer’s group with one of my best friends, Brent Seth, who inspired and encouraged me to take writing to another level. At this point in history, Maria and I have loved, found happiness, and have lost many. In 2015, one of my very best and oldest friends, Thaddeus Gregg, passed away shaking my world, breaking my heart, and hitting the hard reality home that I will not live forever. In 2016 my first introduction and collection of fiction will take the world by storm. Blood, Dreams & Tears is released to the masses.
2023… The year of FIFTY! Maria and I sold our Dark Nest in 2021, minimized and have been full time RV’ers for TWO YEARS! We both have been blessed with grandbabies, a life of marriage and many fulfilled dreams. I have fiction for sale, everywhere. My love for Maria, our adult children and their ever-evolving families continue to fill my heart. The events of my life over the past half century have made me who I am today. The friendships I have made, the love I have found sprinkled everywhere is a continuous and beautiful thing. The idea that we all die and experience loss brings tears. Tears because loss is inevitable, but love will always shine in that memory and hope, drying the damp salty drop on our face. This is the year that I look back without regrets, grab life to love a little harder, and lift my head to relish the years to come. Thanks for reading!
Tim Eagle
Find out where RV travel, exploring, DIY and writing at the Dark Nest Travels YouTube channel here: Dark Nest Travels.
Tim Eagle is an author of the novellas Stolen Seed and Krae. He lives full time, on the road, with his wife, Maria and their dog, Cocoa. He grew up in Michigan and is inspired by the dysfunction, insanity, and nepotism of rural America. His books are available on Amazon, godless and this site timeaglefiction.com Thanks for reading, tune in next week for more...