My Dream House

Yesterday I got to talking with my friends about the "ultimate" life. My dream has always been to escape to a quiet, rural house (it is white), on a large piece of fertile land, where it is always warm, the growing season is long and there are squash of all sorts growing in my back yard. I spend my days working in the garden, taking care of neighbor's children, perhaps teaching yoga from the home, and offering rooms and meals for passing travellers. The neighbors (whose house is a mile up the road) come over for dinner - they bring overly sweet homemade wine, grown from grapes grown organically in their backyard, and we serve thick vegetable soup, prepared with vegetables picked from the garden hours before, with fresh and warm kamut bread. For dessert, roasted apple crumble bakes in the wood stove and this is served with iced vanilla bean soy cream. The fireplace keeps us warm, and conversation lingers till the thin hours of the night, until the children have crashed in the living room, blankets half-covering their dirt-smudged legs - they can sleep here tonight. In the morning we'll wake with the sun - there is no need for alarm clocks here. In tall, second-hand crystal parfait glasses, we'll enjoy the seasonal fruit, layered with fresh yogurt, and just-toasted granola. The rest of the day I am busy - but not busy - with tending to the house, children, pets, guests, those who knock on the door. I cook, I create, I read, I write, I LOVE....

This has always been my dream, or at least I have included it as the epitome of the ideal "retirement" for every one the various life "plans" I have created. As my friends and sat there, discussing this over coffee that hand now gone cold, my dream became more and more plausible. it became tangible. It became possible for NOW (or at least sooner than retirement!). I want to live my dream NOW - because now is all I can be sure of. This dream is too beautiful to place so far in the distance; there are simply too many obstacles in between that could foil the 'plan'. Logistically, I know I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and see my vision in full bloom - but I CAN start planting the seeds. If I don't sow now, I may never reap. However, I would rather die with mere seedlings, than to not have planted at all. The perfect season to plant the seeds of your dreams is NOW, and the growing season is the rest of your life.

Tally ho!