Rainy Morning Daydreams

Some people have amazing vivid dreams that they are able to recall and retell like stories. My children are like this. My friend Taryn is like this. I am not like this, but I am a daydreamer. Sometimes I’ll realize that many minutes have passed while I was lost in a stream of thought. Sometimes I like to entertain “winning the lottery and what I would do with the money” daydreams. I have noticed a correlation to entertaining these musings after listening to Bob Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In.” When I daydream up a scenario for what I would do with nearly unlimited monetary resources, I am often able to identify my current priorities and how they have evolved from the last time I let this scenario run wild. This morning, as I was driving along Fern Ridge Reservoir in the pouring rain, I was lost in a lovely daydream of a large spread of land out west towards Mapleton in the coast range. I was seeing forests, meadows and mountains surrounding a self-sustaining farm and artist’s community shared with a small group of good friends. We would all help one another build our own homes. My family would build a vintage replica Victorian farmhouse right out of the early 1900’s with a big porch to sit on with rocking chairs. There would be a huge barn big enough for barn dances. We would hire a Waldorf teacher to come out and teach our children in a little schoolhouse. There would be an orchard, berries, veggie gardens, bees, goats, a milk cow, woods to hike and harvest wild foods in, and streams with fish. We would build cobb wood-fired bread ovens and little guest cottages. Ah, utopia. In the absence of worrying about a mortgage, bills, etc, we would focus on producing the bulk of our own food and making art. Looking at current priorities based on this dream, I would say living close to nature, community, self-sufficiency, sustainability, art, creativity, joy, and good food would top the list. I would venture, then, to call this an unintentional exercise in identifying priorities, goals and dreams. Then when I really think on it, is winning the lottery necessary to make this happen? Who knows what the future will hold. When I look back at all the dreams I’ve pursued and accomplished, anything seems possible. Not bad for a rambling daydream while driving into town on a rainy morning!