I have grown up in a wonderful world full of dinner parties, next-door cocktails, china plates, Sunday school dresses, neighborhood bike rides, white picket fences and golden retrievers. I have lived the Southern stereotypical lifestyle of knowing everyone in town and leaving doors unlocked… and I love it so dearly. I have always had a vision of my future: working in a successful marketing agency in a thriving city. Having the top-notch designer brands in clothing (something I have never had the luxury of experiencing.) My apartment being decorated to perfection and a place where clutter ceases to exist. Going out on the town at night where I would eventually meet the man of my dreams. We would date for approximately two years, get engaged, and then have the wedding of anyone’s expectations. We would then settle down into a small suburb where my small-town tendencies would fit in perfectly. Our house would be either white-washed brick or pale-yellow wood. And yes, a white picket fence would be in tact… complete with a terrier on the front steps. We would wait about a year before we had kids ( I would want the married-life experience, of course..) He would commute to work, and I would start a photography business from home once we started to have children. Our children would consist of two girls and one boy. They’d grow into successful adults and we would sit in our rocking chairs sipping tea, looking back on it all with so much pride… the perfect life.
But now I am trying to teach myself to let go of it all. Not to criticize people in my mind for not having my own fake ambitions of a “perfect” life. I am now learning to let my life fold out as I go. Not to care if I am living up to anyone’s darn expectations, but my own. Trying to learn who I am, not what I imagined I was. I am opening my mind to others’ ways of life, and looking at it with a positive frame of mind… attempting to engrain in my mind the importance of being happy. No matter what I do, who I end up with, where I am, whatever salary gets thrown my way… that is all that matters.
Ohhh I have a lot to learn and experience, and believe me, I know it.
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we all do my friend..I am still learning after these many years!
ReplyDeleteyou will be a very successful young lady because you are so open to the experiences around you..
blessings and keep taking those amazing photos!
Hi there Suzy, Yep I know were that dream is comming from (looked a lot like mine). But just as you said, go along in your life and God will send you presents each and every day you'd never expected. But do chase dreams because it feels so darn good when they come true.
ReplyDeleteLike I full filled mine with my husband and the boys (we dreamed of 3, but got 2) and I feel so very blessed to be there mom. All the things around it is decorating the scene...and I enjoy it all (even the bad days when there are goodbye's in some sort of way even those are 'good').
Love the fence! And see, it is white.
Hugs Dagmar
One of my favorite quotes is from John Lennon and it goes "Life is what happens while you're busy making plans." Truer words were never spoken. Enjoy your life and everything that comes with it. The good, the bad...it is all a gift.
ReplyDeleteno matter what we visualize, it can only happen with hope....so keep hoping for what you want....but watch your expectations or you might end up disappointed....
ReplyDeleteI have been blessed to have pretty much exactly what you described...and yet, there are days where an empty void sits hungry, waiting to eat me alive when I'm not paying attention.....
you will have what you want someday....but the colors and the smells and the noise might be different than what your mind sees right now and that's okay....
Nothing is set in concrete. It is good to go with the flow. It is also to have dreams and goals - without them we have nothing to aspire to.
ReplyDeleteYour dream sounds so wonderful and I am sure your adult life will have many fantastic moments.
ReplyDeleteI must say you are much wiser than me. Only at 38 am I realizing that I can't control everything and sometimes it better not to have to much detail in my dreams as it has lead to some disappointment. Sometimes we can chase our dreams at all costs when life had another path in mind for us.
just as you have caught the snow in the bend of fence, look for the beauty in the bends of your future ... our perspective and focus is what makes life extraordinary ... even and especially in the ordinary
ReplyDeletei am here, learning right alongside you.
ReplyDeleteyes sweetheart~ let it all go and walk into what comes along. you are beautiful!
ReplyDeletexo