My situation changed my life completely as I'm sure it has yours but now I'm at peace with everything and actually now I'm much happier than I was. Lots of things changed for me including priorities and like you I missed the friendships I had formed here but honestly knives are no longer important to me at all in fact I'm getting ready to list about 30 or so on the exchange to recoup some money I've spent on guitars.
Sometimes an event will happen that changes the way we think. It may take place in an instant, or it may be a slow dawning of a new reality. As I worked my way through my 70's, there has been several events that changed the way I think about things. The ebbing of the knife thing is just the tip of the ice berg of realizing that material possessions don't mean a great deal in the big picture of life.
Maybe it's just being much closer to the end than the beginning, but thought processes do change. I think it's called evolution of the spirit.
But there is so many of you on this site that I consider family, that I drop by to see whats going on with who. Kind of like an alcoholic stopping by the bar and getting a club soda or ginger ale to sip on something while catching with old friends.