Dream Book

Once upon a time, when I was...say, about 21 years old, it was suggested to me by a trusted teacher of mine that I write a list.  I was to write 15 things that I wanted for my relationship, my home, my career, and my self.  It was to be my deepest desires for my life, an 'if I could have anything I would want' list.  I did that, then put it away and forgot about it.  About 6 years later, I came across that list again.  Surprise!  I had achieved most of the things that I wanted on that list - down to long, curly red hair.  (I had had boy-short hair for most of my life. I never imagined I could achieve long hair, though I desperately wanted it!)  I put The List away and forgot about it for another 5-6 years or so then came across the list again.  Lo and behold!  Every single solitary item on the list was something that either I had in my life, or something that I no longer desired as my wants and needs in life had changed.

Flash forward to now - As part of an 'assignment' for a mindfulness workshop that Scotty and I did together during the whole year of 2009, I put together a Dream book.  I pulled all kinds of pictures, words, and phrases from magazines, various print materials around the house, and online, and assembled them in a big, beautiful, pink photo book.  And look what's happening...

Picture in my dream book:

 

Picture that came up the first time I typed in 'Knoxville' to Flickr to see what it was like when we were thinking about moving here. (It's copyrighted and I don't want to steal anyone's work.)

Here's another picture in  my dream book:

Now, this is a funny one.  I mean, I was living in San Francisco with NO intention of leaving when I made this book.  But I felt really drawn to this picture, and figured what the heck?  I love Fall, I would love a house with a porch, I'll put it in the book...

Came across this listing on Craigslist today in the very town in which we will likely be moving to in a few months...

Hello beautiful porch...Hello lovely deciduous trees, that will have gorgeous colored leaves in the fall....

Here's the full listing.  2300 square feet for LESS THAN $150,000 PEOPLE!!!!  Holy moly.  Not that we could afford to buy a house right now, or would even want to until we knew the area better, but just that there are houses like that here.  Where we live.  And they are well within our reach.

No, these pictures aren't exactly the same, but the same feeling was there for me when I saw them.  I believe that in order to have what we want, we need to know what we want.  These exercises, the writing of the list and the making of the dream book, clarify what exactly it is that I want.  These are my deepest and truest desires.  I pray for them, I imagine what life would be like having achieved them, and hope to one day manifest them into being - at the right time, in the right place, if and when they are meant to be.  I do my best not to white knuckle these dreams to death, leaving space for even bigger and better things to come to me that I might not have the capacity to imagine in the current moment.  But it's good to 'put it out there'.  It might just come back to you.  :)

UPDATE:

Hahahahaha!  I was just looking through my dream book, a little meditation during a stressful day, then looked out the front window of my sister's house.  Lol...  Check it.

Dream book, metal flowers:

Sharon's front porch, metal flowers (I didn't know she had these till we got here):

<Insert Twilight Zone music here!>  Funny funny...

UPDATE #2:

Ok, last one promise.  Here's the picture from my dream book:

It's in my Recreation & Fun section. 

Did I mention that we live in a community built around a lake?   That we visit several times a week to swim in and get out of the heat?  Yep, we do.

Running out to the craft store for 'Dream Book' supplies yet?  ;-)

Comments

[Lydia]

So happy to hear that you and your family have landed so gently yet deeply in your new surroundings. I'm not running out to the craft store yet, but you've definitely planted a seed. :-)

[Your snl]

Woah. I don't know what to say...that's eerie Shelby.

[Shelby Shankland]

Snl - I know, right? It's a great exercise. It's super fun to do, too!

[Tao]

Shelby,

This is a great post and really superb writing. The similarity of the "dream house" versus the craigslist post is fabulous; I could definitely see you guys living in a house like that, and not to far into the future. The thing that actually got me really revved up was the synchronicity of the metal flowers.