"Trent Moorehead" wrote:
Flying is a complex, demanding, expensive avocation. As such, it's bound to
have severe attrition due to these factors. My personal account: I am now
just getting back into flying after about a 6 month hiatus. My father died
in March and I am the executor of his will. Flying was not the thing to be
doing during this time. I am just getting to the point where it has appeal
again because while I was grieving and settling family issues and talking
with lawyers and digging through the house that my parents built and arguing
with my brother and grieving some more, the thought of doing something
demanding to relax didn't seem right.

Interesting, because that's the exact reason why I *continued* flight
training!

I lost my mother, who I was VERY close to. Just before she died, she
said: "You'll never look back and regret having spent time on your loved
ones; don't get to where I am and regret NOT having spent time on
YOURSELF!" (a regret she had). That was the inspiration for me to take
the demo ride. All the things you listed -- grieving, settling family
issues, talking with lawyers, then losing my father as well and digging
through, cleaning, separating, fighting over, giving away, selling
their things (what a heartbreaking task is that??), arguing with family,
and grieving some more -- brought me down so low that there was NO
escaping it EXCEPT if I went flying! Because it *is* so demanding, there
was no room for any of that other monumentally depressing stuff to creep
in ... so, demanding as it was, it was relaxing and exhilarating
compared to the alternative. For me, the flying is what got me through
that horrible time.