Every week Suzie and Des send the most amazing thoughts and photographs from the beaches of OZ. The small missives they send may be just slightly more meaningful because of a dream I carry to return to the beaches I walked there 8 years ago.
Time for a 7-year-old Dream Now?
I started writing this in 2005. This dream was four years old then. I still think about it more often than I might. It waits until more important things hit zero balance. That could take a few more minutes … Usually I don’t talk about it.
I don’t need vacations. At least I don’t lack for places to visit. I don’t spend lots of time thinking about things that aren’t on the schedule to be happening yet. But maybe it’s time that I start doing so.
If I did, I’d be planning to go to Australia. I’d see friends that I miss. We’d reminisce of times passed. We’d plan new times to come. We’d drink Australian coffee and have Australian wine.
I’d choose the coffee shop across the street from Bondi Beach — a table by the window where I could watch the people. I’d have my laptop on the table and fine Australian coffee with those narrow packs of sugar. What a writer I would feel like. What a writer I would be.
My friends would visit me there.
We would drink Australian coffee. I do like Australian coffee.
We’d road trip up the cliff with Australian wine and cheese, to watch the boats in the harbor and talk of Captain Cook — new memories to hold me over until the next time.
And we would drink Australian wine. I do like Australian wine.
A night walk by the Sydney Harbor bridge. I can’t resist the lights on the water. I’d be thinking wishes that could hug a moment into stillness.
Mostly, though I’d be with my Australian friends. The ones I knew before I came online and the ones that I’ve met since. It’s not right always hoping folks will come to me.
Five tiny diamond chips like tiny stars are mine. Two yellow, two pink, one white. They hold a promise I’ll return to see mu Australian friends. Five stars inside a tiny boomerang. I wear it on a chain since before my last visit in 2001.
I don’t need vacations. I need safe harbor with my friends.
Maybe it’s time I dust off that dream and find good reason to be tasting some Australian coffee and Australia wine.
What dream have you to left waiting? How will you know when it’s time?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
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Going back to SF has been that kind of dream for me — one that was in the back of my mind that I didn’t really let myself think too much about or feel, because I was afraid on some level, or didn’t think I deserved to do it maybe. When I did think about it I thought more about how it would affect the ones I’d be leaving at home, even temporarily. People need me to be here, and I didn’t want to let them down. And it’s easier for me to remain grounded in the reality that’s here rather than chase a dream, even if that dream could be a temporary reality worth chasing…
I don’t need vacations either. But sometimes it’s good to visit places that feel like friends, and visit with old friends while we are there. 🙂
Liz,
I love the concept of dusting off a dream. It’s so easy to let our heart’s desires slink off into the pools of obscurity because we believe them to be “unrealistic” or “not doable right now” or simply “too silly” to be considered.
Let me encourage you and everyone else to honor your dreams, no matter how humble, They are what make you unique. They are what make you you.
Me? I’ve had two dreams efficiently collecting debris in the dark corners of my heart for the last four or five years. Two I’ve “dusted off” this year.
One is to be a writer. I kind of consider that one beginning to be fulfilled as I’m writing pretty much on a daily basis. Not published, mind you, except for my “published” blog posts, but I am writing. One day I believe “published” will be a reality, as I’ve brushed off the cobwebs, gulped down a truckload of fear and placed this dream in the light where I risk believing that it belongs.
The other I’ve also recently extricated from the far reaches of dream dust territory. That’s to move away from Olympia and the constant rain, back to the Southwest where I can once again experience the joy and pleasure of consistent sunshine and clear nights for the unending delight of stargazing. This dream may also take a while to achieve, but “dusting it off” was and is the place to start.
Thanks for reminding me that dreams are to be honored no matter how obscure or how buried in dust they have become.
Dave
Amy,
If going back to SF is really gripping your heart (and it sounds like it is), then may I encourage you to make movement towards that dream. To not do so will ultimately lead to real regret.
One of my favorite quotations comes from Mark Twain. It goes like this:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Liz, in this post, has done a tremendous job in reminding us how true this is. Good luck, and may the winds be at your back. 🙂
Dave
Liz,
Don’t just plan to come down here (Australia), do it!
We are waiting. That coffee is going cold and the wine is open, ready.
Try and visit Alice Springs if you have a chance and experience a glass of wine in the Simpson Desert at night, under the watch of a billion stars.
Thanks for your inspiring blog, from an Australian living in the outback.
Thanks, Amanda!
That’s the most inspiring invitation. I need to act on it!! Haven’t made it to Alice Springs … hmmmm
Yeah, Amy,
I like your idea of places that feel like friends. That’s what I mean. They’re home in a way that feeds the soul. They expand me, inspire me, and make me think.
I’m glad you’re getting some bay time in your agenda now.
Dave,
I hear you making things happen not just thinking about them. I can feel the smile. You already are the writer living in the sun. The details of getting there are only details to be worked out now. The destination is in sight. The walking has begun.
You’re doing what’s right I can feel it. You must be feeling it too.
Yep. I do feel it, Liz. I know I’m heading in the right direction. The gut feeling tells me so. The details and the time it’s going to take are important only in the way they contribute to the accomplishment of the end goals.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Thank you, Dave. I’m doing it now. 🙂 That’s one of my favorite Twain quotes, so I appreciate your putting it here. Your encouragement means a lot, and I am happy to see that you’re dusting off the writing dream — you do seem to have a way with words. 🙂
Liz… I hope you do make your visit to Australia. If it’ll make you happy, you should do it. And thank you for being one of those people who always feels like home to me.
Sometimes a post and the comments are too perfect, too complete that I have nothing I can add. This is one of those times. Thank you to those who have made it so.