Do you remember what it felt like to think that anything was possible?... that you could be anything today, and then something different tomorrow should you so choose it?
I could almost feel that feeling again, while watching my guy soak in all that the big wide world had to offer him over the last few days. I remember being 8. I had big ideas at 8 and he does too. He is coming into his own self now in a way that is truly a blessing to watch.
My young man wavered over the last few days between a love of the fast pace and awe inspiring largeness of downtown, and his agrarian vision for his future.
He wants it all. He wants art and music and inspired architecture. He wants chickens and strawberries and green for miles. He wants to play baseball, to hear the crowd sing HIS name when he comes up to bat.
He wants to know for sure that his farm and his city and his bat and glove and a girl who loves chickens as much as he does, are all waiting for him in his tomorrow.
What he doesn't know, what he can't know because he is not yet a papa, is that all his dreams for his future are the dreams that we have for him too -but that we call them by different names. To us, those dreams are called love, contentment, joy in one's work, a life full of passion, gratitude and simple pleasures.
We want for him all the things that he doesn't yet know how to want.
In these strange times when people are grateful to have a job, any job, it's feels sort of extravagant to be hoping that the work he chooses in life is something that he's passionate about, something that fills him.
I do though. I wish that for all of us, in fact. You too! And I hope that if there's any silver lining in this dark economic cloud it's that necessity might lead many of us to pursuits that we never would have attempted before our pantries went bare. I know for us that has been true.
I've been hesitant to say here that my husband lost his job a while back because I know that we are just one family among many. He's working still, for a different company, but solely on commission, and ain't nobody buying circuit boards these days. The good news is that he is beginning to try to make his passion (filmmaking) into something that can feed his soul and also his family.
The boys and I are turning our own passions, learning and investigating, reading, art and nature into something that helps us stay afloat too, our book. Hopefully we're bringing some good times to other families while we're at it.
I can't say for sure that those things would have happened, that we would have had the guts to try, if we hadn't HAD to.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I worry sometimes. I don't want my kids to feel the bleak realities of a recession. It scares me to show my boy all the world has to offer and then to lay in bed at night and wonder if when the time comes we will be able to give it to him. At the same time though, I try to rest in the knowledge that there can be beauty from ashes - there are upsides to every downturn.
I don't mean to minimize the very real struggles out there, believe me, I just mean that if we must all walk this road, I hope in the end it leads us right where we were meant to be, where we hoped to be all along.
To that end, I am hoping to continue to share with you some of the amazing things that people are doing to turn their passions into creative ways to keep their families going. I will be back here this evening to introduce you to a few passionate souls who are carving out a path for themselves. Be sure to come back because there will be a giveaway!
If you have a business or a story about how your family is making ends meet in these tough times, shoot me an email (button at the top of the page) or leave me a comment here. I'm going to try to regularly highlight some of the neat ways that people are overcoming these hard times.
See you back here tonight!
