Dreams realized

Overheard on a walk along the river (snowflakes whirling, carrying toboggans after sledding at the frozen beach); my older son saying to his friend, “My mom’s a writer.”

Click.

Take a picture of this moment, I thought, because here are all your dreams realized at once.

• Two healthy boys: check.
• Writing for a living: check.
• Living alongside the river: check.
• Having the freedom to be sledding with my children in the middle of a weekday: check.

The thing is, I could have picked this apart. Not the boy part. They’re perfect just as they are. But the writing. I mean, sure, I’m a writer now. I’m not anything else. But I’m still working hard to get my novel published. Still climbing that wall. Believing I’m going to get there but with no guarantees. And, the “living” part of it. Well…that’s all relative. I wouldn’t have much of a living if it wasn’t for my full-time employed husband.

And the living by the river thing. It’s not the rural idyll I pictured as a kid. We’re very much urban dwellers. We crossed the transitway to get to our beach sledding spot and our path took us alongside the Ottawa River Parkway.

In terms of freedom, well, it’s true to a point. I still have a million things I have to do every day. I do quite a bit of time juggling to make sure the house is clean, the laundry’s done, we all get fed and I keep up that “living” of mine writing.

So, you see, if I’m determined to feel that my dream hasn’t come true, I can do so.

On the flip side, though, if I’m prepared to count my blessings I can do that too. I can even see extra beauty in the twists added to my dream. Living centrally, urbanly, a ten-minute bus ride from Parliament Hill and also being a three-minute walk from the river? Bonus!

And in terms of the activities competing for my time, well, what would life really be without them? I’ve always wondered if you had someone to do everything for you then what would you really be doing with your life?

So, for now, I think I’ll take the double luxury of saying my dreams have come true and I still have room left to realize them more fully.

Are there ways in which you can see your dreams have been realized?