Revisiting the Dream

So what would you do if all of a sudden an old dream from your childhood was suddenly dropped in your lap…like say, 50 years later? You would at least revisit that dream, wouldn’t you?  I mean at least on a superficial level.

Suppose after a day or two, the realization hits you, that the dream is not going away. But even more than that, the dream is actually currently very attainable.

Then, after even more careful analysis, what if you find the dream actually makes sense? Good sense. And in only a flash of a moment, suddenly the current satisfaction of your life has changed. Maybe that had been slowing taking place, and one simply hadn’t come to the realization, yet.

So it was for me this week, when I went on a spur of the moment drive, Sunday evening.

I met a loved one for dinner, and he handed me a real estate flyer advertising a home I had been in love with since my childhood.  I had spoken with him of my childhood dream, and he knew I would appreciate seeing this. The 1907 Victorian home on the hill was for sell. What is more, it was very reasonably priced.

Somewhere along the time frame within those 50 years, that home I viewed as "the mansion on the hill that the rich people lived in” became affordable to me!  Now a thought like that will certainly get ones attention.

“Let’s drive by”, I said with earnest excitement.

“Not gonna stop”, he replied matter-of-factly.

“That’s ok; I will come back after you take me to my car.” 

And so I went back. I walked around in the yard a bit, trying not to be disrespectful in my wanderings. Oh my goodness, the view! The yard! The windows!! A 4^th floor attic, the flyer stated!!!  DREAM home!  Dream location!

Ok, so I am dreaming in type before I have even spoken with my husband. That is probably not too smart...but it's only a dream. I'm simply thinking out loud. What I do know is if my husband catches this dream, it is a done deal. He has a way of making happen that which he believes should happen.

For the record, there is no other place on earth that could call me from my present home like this has.  I love our home, and it has long fulfilled another childhood dream.  The truth is, I have never wanted to leave here. But things are changing. My son is gone. I am experiencing the empty nest syndrome. (Not doing very well there, I'm afraid.) I am taking care of 10 acres mostly by myself. It has become too much work. I can no longer enjoy it. If not for the weekly trips into town, I would find it entirely doable. But I just feel like I can’t do it anymore. The joy in it is dissipating. I have been realizing it slowly…trying to keep up with the arduous tasks that just never seem to end….and I am not talking simply about the tasks at my home.

I have to ask myself… “Am I running away?”  Maybe - but I would like to bring that which distracts me from my current home with me.  That way everything would be in only one place. That dreadful drive that I hate more than hate itself would be over. And if I only had to do the drive once a week, from a distance further, that would be much better than the 3 or 4 times a week that I do now. Certainly not saying this part of it would work out. This part involves much more than my passing fancy or thought.

And if that part of my thought process didn’t happen, I would still chase the dream. I could still make a weekly trip down that dreaded highway, I have reasoned. But there wouldn’t be quite so much.

 

Of course, I would miss my horses; but right now, I feel like that is all I would miss. I could conceivably board them out, probably just minutes from my new home.  The house is on a hill with magnificent views of a place that I love, but there are no HIGH, scary roads to get there. A few minutes to town; a few minutes to the country! I could go to work within 3 minutes of my home, if I so chose! The home and yard are cared for with impeccable attention. Further and probably the most key issue - I firmly believe we could lower our payments in the process. This is almost frightenly doable.

As we age, we won’t be able to keep the beautiful place we have now forever, anyway. The acreage will become too difficult to care for properly. This all comes a bit premature, but not by much. The attainability of it is almost mind-boggling. It would be wrong not to pray it through; tragic, to ignore the possibility that this may be a direction the Lord does indeed have for us.

If nothing else, I am enjoying reliving the dream of my childhood, and shaking my head that something like that could actually happen. I am going to make an appointment to view. And then if I like what I see and he is able to catch the excitement, I am going to make another appointment for my husband to view.

 

It might be a bit too big of a home for people our age, but there could be at least as many years there as we have had here. That would be worth it. I always said I would one day retire in that city. Two dreams in one. What more could one ask?

I think I’m ready.

“Restored home,”- the flyer states. “Beautiful woodwork, hardwood floors, round porch with balcony; claw foot tub and pedestal sink”.  “Character within its walls.”  I knew that from the first time I saw it all those years ago.  The dream deserves a visit.

 

 

I Will Take Eight!

Do you ever read those articles in the local paper that feature one of our successful, outstanding citizens? The article is usually in the “Lifestyles” section and I believe it is called “Snapshot”. I usually always stop to read these exposes and typically, I enjoy them.

Anyway, the paper prints a photo of the person featured and then asks a series of questions, printing their answers. The questions are not always the same. Naturally, many of the questions have to do with topics in direct correlation to the person’s occupation or whatever it is for which they have been chosen to be interviewed. But there is one question that is always and consistently asked of each interviewee, and that is “How many hours of sleep do you get a night?”

I have always kind of laughed about this. Almost every person, without fail, answers with a number less than 8 hours. There are a few really wise people that will answer 8 hours. But it almost seems like it has been some kind of competition that would reveal the less hours of sleep one gets in a night, the more successful one must be.

I believe I have read some state they get only 4 hours of sleep on an average. And of course there are a lot of 6 hour responses. I just want to say “WHATEVER! How many naps do you take every day?”

I’m not saying they are fudging their answers…I mean who am I to say? I require at least 8 hours every night! And sometimes I prefer 9! But that’s just me. One could probably assume from that, if based on everyone else’s response, that I am not successful.  WHATEVER! I just want to get a good night’s rest!

I find the older I get the more difficult that is. I don’t fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow anymore. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night with pain in my hip or back. I’m always up at the crack of dawn, whether I was able to meet my 9:30 pm retirement deadline or not. But I do like to sleep.

I am not one for daytime naps. My husband and son would argue that. They think I always fall asleep the minute we are driving somewhere of any distance in the car, and without fail they tell me I fall asleep the minute we all sit down to watch television and the movie begins. I guess that is true.  But generally speaking I don’t like naps. They leave me feeling more exhausted and out of sorts. And then I always feel like I have wasted precious hours when I could be getting something accomplished.

 

The other day, however, I purposefully laid down for a nap. I slept two hours! And then the day after that, I laid down for a morning nap at 10:30 and slept for an hour; and then I laid down again in the afternoon for another hour nap. Yikes! What is that all about?

I slept again, yesterday, just after sitting down to O’Reilly at 5:00 pm. "I haven’t been feeling well," I rationalized. Every muscle in my body has been aching for a week!  Well, a good deal more than the usual aches and pains, that is. "I’m reallllly not feeling well," I realized. I’m out of sorts! Sniffles and sore throat for 3 or 4 days, now; extra sleep has been a necessity! I really don't feel well!! I have been thankful for the rainy days, so that I had an excuse to not work outside. I guess the Lord knew, too.

But anyway, I woke up to hacking in the middle of O’Reilly! "That feels like a cold!" I told myself in wonderment. So I went to bed early.  Woke up in the night, with a cough burning deep in my chest; that’s when it hit me knowing that I know, “I have a cold!!”

I fell back to sleep, pleased that now I had an answer to why I hadn’t been feeling well this week and sleeping so much. I awoke this morning feeling not a bit refreshed, but with a headache, and cough and a stuffed up head. "Oh yeah, it’s a cold," I realized. Sometimes I guess I am a bit of slow learner.

I guess I will never be one of those successful people that only require 4 - 6 hours of sleep if it takes me five days and extra sleep to fully comprehend that I have a cold.

 

I will take 8!

Ahhhh, sleep now. ;-)