How I followed my dream and where it all started
Following the dream
So often we forget about what makes us happy, what truly makes us blissfully happy. Yes a hot cup of coffee from your favorite coffee stand is nice, when the kitchen is perfectly clean, when the sun is out, or when your commute to work isn’t as long as it usually feels. Those are the little things that help but when you stare out a window or get lost in thought. Where does your mind go?
Looking back when it all started
How I followed my dream and where it all started
Since I was a little girl, I’ve been a day dreamer. Maybe it was my lack of focus or maybe it was the cause of it. Regardless, I’ve always felt like I have been chasing something. Growing up my parents homeschooled my younger sister and I.
I had a wonderful childhood. My parents let us pursue our individual interests and helped us as best they could to facilitate our goals for ourselves. My sister loved to dance, I liked to be outside.
My first chicken memory
ok, story time……..
A childhood friend of mine had chickens. I had only ever seen live chickens at fairs and playing and caring for hers sparked something in me. I would grab a small basket and collect the eggs anytime I was there and help feed and care for them.
Soon after my mom got us girls two baby rabbits and ducklings. Let me tell you, as an eight year old girl, it was love at first sight. Clover was my gray mini lop and that rabbit went everywhere. We would carry those rabbits and ducks up into our tree fort and make little bonnets out of leaves. It was perfect and looking back I can seriously appreciate the patience those animals must of had.
As time went on, I got a dog and more rabbits and my interests changed from sports to animals. So naturally I joined a 4H group. My poor parents carted me around to every fair in our area, countless dog training sessions, and cheered me on at every show.
Back then I knew this was the life I wanted. Not necessarily the fairs and the training but the lifestyle. Most of the people at the fair went home to farms and I wanted that.
What I thought I wanted
Now in my mid twenties, I realized that I’ve been living far off from that eight year old’s dream. I went to college for a couple years pursuing a degree that would land me in a city somewhere, dropped out of college, I got married, I bought the house with a small yard, became a mother, got divorced, sold the house with the small yard, and moved back home……
The dream felt like a nightmare for a while. Being a single mother, working full time, trying to pick up the pieces and heal didn’t even give me enough time to play with the one rabbit I still had. I didn’t pick up a paintbrush for years. Who was I? Where was the dreamer, the one who could slow down, the one that prioritized the things that made me happy? Maybe it was postpartum or maybe it was unprocessed hurt, but whatever it was it felt lonely.
I knew my tiny little baby needed a happy mom. He needed to see me living to my full potential even if the circumstances were not ideal….. so that’s what I did.
My lightbulb moment
When I needed it most I stumbled upon Roots and a Refuge Farm on YouTube one day on a lunch break at work.
Jess, the creator, spoke about finding contentment in the time of waiting and that pulled at my heartstrings a lot. So here I was ugly crying in my car, praying out to God, speaking out loud the desires of my heart and all of a sudden I started feeling better.
She spoke about treating the time of your life as a classroom. Whatever you had to work with, use it. Whether that was a tiny balcony to grow a pot of flowers, a city apartment to read blogs and books to learn, or a small property to grow a garden, whatever it was to just take the time and the space to learn. So that one day when the opportunity to live on the property of your dreams came around you were ready.
click here to watch her video on Living in Fulfillment
How I started
That made so much sense to me.
Yes, living in a spare room at my parents isn’t ideal, but it gives me time to save. The backyard that wasn’t being used, I turned into a little fenced garden, the woods bordering the yard was a perfect spot to put my rabbits and build a duck coop.
Changing my mindset from the sadness of not living the life I always wanted to appreciating the time and place I had been given as a learning opportunity changed everything.
A change in attitude
I started that book I had been talking about for years. I opened an online shop to share my watercolor paintings, I had the most unsuccessful vegetable garden ever but I did it and I was out there every day taking care of the horribly spaced mess of plants. Here I am one year later from crying in my car over broken dreams, to using what I have to fulfill my life. My goal is not to only showcase the beautiful flowers and the perfect animals but to be real for those who share the dreams I have. So my question for you is what truly makes you happy and what’s something you can do today to chase after it?
