While looking through an old picture album the other day (Yes! Picture albums still exist) nestled in the seams of one page…we found this old and weathered list.
As we opened it and began to read…the two of us were thrilled…that old list contained the items for the dream house we would build.
At the top of the list…of course…a bungalow was number one…not too big…but with enough room for our children to play and dream and run.
There was no timeline on our dream house list…no specific when…it was just a list of all the things we dreamed about back then.
As I sat there holding that old list of dreams within my hand…I realized we never built our dream house…life didn’t go quite the way we planned.
After we finished reading the list…that together we’d amassed…I gently folded it back up…then turned to Deborah and asked:
“Are you sad we never built our dream house…sad you may have missed…your chance to live in a house with all the items on our list?”
She closed her eyes and visited her memory for a while…before she returned the list to the album…squeezed my hand and smiled.
“How can I be sad.” She said. “Though this is not our bungalow…this is the house we’ve raised three children in…and watched four grandchildren grow.”
“This house contains all the joys we’ve shared…all the sorrows we’ve overcome…this is the house that’s influenced who our children and grandchildren have become.”
“Yes, this list was never completed.” She said. “But it’s not as sad as that may seem…This might not be the dream house from our list…but it is our house of dreams.”
And I felt blessed she reminded me of something we both already knew…
that a dream house can be any house…where all your dreams come true.
No comments:
Post a Comment