If You Are a Dreamer...

My best friend had her baby shower last week.  The new trend is requesting guests to bring a book instead of a card to help build the baby's library.  I walked into Target trying to think of a book that would capture both my 15 year relationship with Kristen (and still going strong) and everything I wanted the little nugget to learn from his or her Auntie Katy.  My eyes fell to Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and while it wasn't a baby book, I could see the values Kristen and I share in every page of the poetry.  The inside jacket of the book has his poem "Invitation" ---->

by Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends

I have always been a dreamer, a wisher and a pretender.  And, while I probably shouldn't admit this, I am a pretty good liar (it goes along with the whole pretender thing).  I have so many dreams I want to test out before I die.  I want to build my own tiny house (see Tumbleweed Tiny Houses) and buy a plot of land and live in it while paying off all my debts and simplifying everything.  I want to put the house on wheels and experience living in places like San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Maine.  I want to try living in a big city and living in the middle of nowhere.  I want to blog about how I still cook and bake and live happily in a tiny house.  I would be free to find my happy.  I dream of being a teacher - the dream changes from little kids to college aged "kids".  I would love to be in a musical just once, even if in the chorus.  I dream of building a darkroom in my apartment and go back to taking pictures wherever I go, on real film, and developing them myself.  I dream of being a mother and teaching my children that quirky is good and anything can happen.  I have so many dreams, I lose track of them all as they slip out of my ears as another one is born in my brain.

by Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends

I have been restless for some time and I think while I can't quite follow any of these dreams just yet, I can start enacting change in my life to put myself on the path of change.  I love Cleveland, but my dreams involve seeing other places.  I love the people at my job, but my job doesn't embody quirky and independent.  So, my readers, I have accepted a job (still as an accountant) at a quirky company in Chicago.  While I'm not in a tiny house with no set job, I am shedding the required busy season and going to a company with a unique culture.  I am scared.  I will miss Cleveland a lot.  But this is something I have to do.  I can't be a magic bean buyer if I don't ever head to the market.

Have you been keeping up on your dreaming?