Sometimes It’s HARD Work Making Our Dreams Come True

I recently wrote this in my journal:

“I want a nice house to live in, not an apartment, that has space for me to be creative, a yard, a place for a garden.  A darkroom. A place that feels like family and is a real home.”

Guess what?  In a few short weeks I will be moving into that exact space.

For those of you who are new around here, I’ve been living with my mom for the past year or so since I got divorced.  My mom is super duper supportive and we get along great, but well, you know.. it’s still living with MOM. 

I’ve been creating in my mind what I want, where I want to live and wishing for the perfect place to call home for me and my kiddos.

Then, a few weeks ago both my aunt and my mom had this flash of brilliance at the same time:  “Why not have Lisa and the kids move into Granny’s house?”

My gran has been living in a nursing home for the past year and her house is empty.

The problem is that it was a mess!  She was a bit of a hoarder and smoked inside for 50 years, plus the past several years she has not been well, so housekeeping was.. optional.  If you can imagine….  (then imagine it way worse!)

With this brilliant idea of having us move in, my family has gotten motivated to tackle the mess.

But, it hasn’t been easy.

My goal is to have us moved in before school starts for all of us in August.  So, we’ve had to hustle.

And sweat.  And get covered in paint.  And work through sheer exhaustion, sore muscles, and feeling 100% worn out.

If you’re friends with me on facebook, you’ve probably read the updates.

HARD. WORK.

And that, is sometimes what it takes to make your dreams happen.

But, we tend to resist that.

Jumping into something and committing to work my ass off is not always what I want to do.

My guess is that, you too, avoid taking on too much, procrastinate big projects, and push off getting started for “someday.”

But, your dreams are just not going to happen if you don’t dive on in and make them happen.

You have to work for them.  And sometimes that work is going to be hard.

But, I can tell you that it’s so worth it.

When I stand inside my granny’s house – the house that I grew up in and my mom grew up in – when I watch my kids play in the back yard, the same way I did as a child…  When I realize that I can build a darkroom in the basement bathroom, or imagine where the garden will go next summer, or plot out where I’m going to make my art…. when I realize that the perfect space that I imagined for me to live in with my kids is happening…

The sweat and the sore muscles are so worth it.

My dreams are coming true, they are happening, and they are happening NOW.