Dreaming My Life
January 28th, 2010 | Author: Shannon
I want to write a book.
Be a children’s yoga teacher.
Teach children about nature.
Be an awesome gardener and grow most of my own food.
I want to be a great friend, the best mother, and the most nurturing wife.
I want it ALL. NOW.
The past fall Lisa Tener had a contest on her blog called It’s An Authors Dream Contest. This is what I wrote:
“The meat of my book is to share my excitement and love of nature and children with my readers. I want to inspire the least outdoorsy mama to take her little ones to the park and turn over rocks to look for bugs and the most A-type mama to take a break between power meetings to wade in a creek and look for minnows and empower a school teacher to plant a garden or lead a mini outdoor yoga class at the beginning of the school day- barefoot on the school lawn. I want to share games and songs and riddles to beaming children with ear to ear smiles as they catch butterflies or dance with the ocean surf.
“In five years, I will wake up to the chirping of the morning birds to meditate and practice yoga before anyone in the house has moved. I will eat fresh fruits granola and yogurt with my children as they ready themselves for school. We will ride our bikes to school. I will teach yoga in the afternoon and workshops on children and nature on the weekend. I will be the director of a nature based preschool or will serve on the board and volunteer in the classrooms. My youngest will attend the preschool and those days I will have some time for writing. I will be working on my second book about children and spirituality (or perhaps it will be published?) This would leave time for a third- a story about my ancestors. Oh this is fun!”
Well, I won the contest and I got to attend The Dream Party. And it really helped solidify for me what it is I really want. At this party I asked the Dream Team a question, “How do you balance between what is going on in your life and your dreams?”
Circumstances in my life have changed since September. I have a new little girl to care for, and many important things in my life that are happening right now. My actual writing of a book is on the back burner, but here I am blogging and I believe that these are the baby steps towards my dream.
What I Really Want:
I want the house to be cleaned everyday. I want clean dishes, floors, laundry, and children. I want my son to be kind, generous and confident. I want a happy relationship with my handsome husband; I want my husband to be totally content with his life and our life together. I want time to myself everyday. And I want my son to go to sleep at 7 pm every night by himself after eating a hearty, healthy meal. I want beautiful weather and lots of outside playtime. I want a spectacular garden and a heated greenhouse in which to grow winter vegetable. I want 12 hours of daylight year round and rain… but not too much and only at night. I want big juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce and crunchy cucumbers. I want an endless supply of compost and straw. I want healthy chickens that lay big brown or blue eggs and docile goats with delicious milk. I want my son to never talk back to me and my husband to always agree with all my plans.
I want a lot… so I am working on myself and looking to accept and be grateful for what I have and set realistic goals.
I am taking a Children’s Yoga Teacher Training right now. I get one weekend a month to go to Boston, hang out, learn new stuff and enjoy myself. My family and friends take time to support me and take care of the kids, the house etc.
I am asking for one night out a week. And my husband reluctantly agrees. But come on can I blame him? He works outside in 20 degree weather and does his best to bring home the bacon. He wants nights off too! (And I do encourage him to take his time) but when I tell him that I am tired from being with the kids all day. He smirks. He’s REALLY tired.
My son is learning, testing boundaries, growing, changing, having growth spurts, and scary dreams. His life is fluctuating and changing with little input from him. We shuffle him around from here to there (not that much but sometimes) and gosh golly, he wants his mom to put him to bed at night. So I do.
This is my life. It’s the life I dreamed before I had this life. Now that I have this, I want MORE, MORE, MORE.
I am living my dream life. I have little children to love and cherish. I have a wonderful husband who is skilled and gentle. I have a cute home with a great yard. I have a wonderful blog and blogging community where I get a lot of my social needs met and I get to practice writing, so that someday I will write that book I am dreaming. I have a daycare in my home, thus the nature based preschool.
There are many people who have helped me get to where I am… and although most will probably never read this post, I want to take a minute of my time to just say THANK YOU…….. (with a long silent pause).
Just like a seed planted in the ground, my dreams are being watered by the love and care of those around me and me, with time, the dream seed with cast away its protective coat and the little seedling will emerge growing towards the light. The seedling will continue to grow, transforming in to a plant that looks nothing like the original seedling. That plant is the dream realized.
For now, I am adding fertilizer to the soil, watering, and waiting. Patience grasshopper. Patience.
This is part of the link up of Strocel.com. Amber is one of my favorite bloggers, she is full of inspiration, insight, humor, and wisdom. I am excited to participate in Crafting My Life.
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4 Responses to “Dreaming My Life”
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Here’s a site that I think our readers might enjoy. It is called MEET ME AT THE CORNER, Virtual Field Trips for Kids (www.meetmeatthecorner.org)
This series of free educational video pod casts is directed at kids ages 7-12. Each three-minute episode includes links to fun websites, a list of recommended books and a Learning Corner of questions and extended activities about the topic.
New episodes are uploaded every two weeks. On 1/18 there will be an episode about Everyday Physics from the New York Hall of Science. On February 1, there’s a show about Thomas Edison filmed at the new Thomas Edison Museum in West Orange New Jersey. And later in February, there is an episode on how to prepare for your school science fair.
Please take the time to look at my site and perhaps review it for your readers.
Thank you,
Donna Guthrie
Director/produce
I’m so glad that you participated, and I think this post is very inspiring! I also think that you can totally do it. It is a tough balance when we have little children to care for, and so maybe we can’t do it all right now, on the time frame we would choose. But I really think we CAN do it, somehow or another and sooner or later.
Amber´s last blog ..Re-evaluating Your Dreams and Desires
Thank you and mostly for the motivation to think about it. I think my resistance to “planning” too much is that I think we live in a society where future plans sometimes holds more water then what is happening in the present. And I realy believe that the gift is in the NOW. So I like to look at what I do TODAY and how that is really how I obtain my dreams. I also know that I have a very hard time expressing what I mean!
Ah, Shannon, you are a kindred spirit indeed. I’m going through many BIG changes within myself these days and I found this post hit very close to home. I certainly have my fair share of dreams for the future, but my goal these days is to be happy in the moment … I thought I was alone in this quest, so it’s a relief to hear you get it, too!
Debi´s last blog ..Fun Friday: Backyard Bird Watching