Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A Dream Is Just A Dream Until It Is Made Real

I had no idea that when I left the Peace Corps I would have so many opportunities or maybe I have made them all possible. Where did I leave off... I tried being an editor and found the work to be interesting and multifaceted but working strictly on the Internet and with email left me without the face to face I get it or I do not get it energy. I also babysat and loved working with kids and their families. It brought me lots of joy. I also hired a trainer and worked out for two months and then experienced problems with a variety of muscle issues and stopped. I walk. I love to walk. I try for the 10,000 steps and maybe that will be what i do. At least for now. The lucky me, I got a job at Killington Mountain School teaching English for five months to skiers. I love the wok. it is energizing to be with athletes, serious athletes. When school is over, Steve and I will go on a very serious vacation...that is a real vacation, just us, in Prague for three weeks, hanging around, listening to music, walking, going to Vienna, Salzbourg and Innsbruck and then he goes home. Me, I go to Germany for a 10 day meditation retreat and then return to Prague and spend five weeks or so in Uganda, working at an orphanage and at a new school being established by people from Kingston Canada we met on our way back to the States. When I get back, I got accepted to Bread Loaf College of English for an MA in English, yes, yet another degree, and I will be back with the books for the month of July. After that, I Will be with my grands and kids and hanging out until school starts again in November. What a life. I may be broke but I am living my dream and if dreams come true then they are real.
I have no allusions about the ups and downs of this past year. I wish we had stayed in the Peace Corps but it was unrealistic for two people with so many responsibilities. My mom is safe but she has Alzheimer's and everyone knows what that means. Some times she is with us and most of the time she is not. It gets worse, not better. But, she is safe. The Doctor said her brain is like a torn up phone book: all the humblers and names are there but scattered into no particular order. She loves to talk about the weather because she can; all she has to do is look out the window and she sees the information. It is easy to focus on the weather when you have no idea who is on the other end of the phone line until the conversation is nearing and end or after it is over or never. But I love her and whatever happens, she is my mom and I do not belong so far away for so long. I hope she remains as she is while I am gone. Mu sister is the real hero. She is there and she takes care of her and visits often. She has the burden. I come and go. God will find a special place for her when her time comes. Of this I am certain.
Steve is head hunting and continuously working on projects at home. He just tiled a shower in our third floor bathroom. WOW! It looks awesome, very perfect as only he can do.
His mom is 101 and still going strong. We both have the dream of leaving for a year or two at another time in our lives. I know we will do it. We have to do it. We still need to see all of America and I still have a book in my head that has to be written. A dreama is just that, a dream, unlessyou make it real.