Hella Stella

Something lovely happened over the weekend. Well, something other than the happy combination of eating, drinking and family. That is also lovely.

My BH and I went to visit the house where we used to live. Our cousins live there now - we just got to hang out in the house while they were out of the country for a few years. I digress.

I have a lot of great cousins. Is it possible to have bad cousins? I suppose so.... But I've always been spoiled with choice. I have eleventy million cousins, all of whom I like.

We walked in the door and greeted my cousin's wife. The phone rang and someone asked for her husband. "He can't come to the phone right now," she said. "He's meditating."

Like I said: great cousins.

Anyhow. I was chatting with said cousin when he finished meditating. He asked how I was, and I sort of blathered on about my stressers, my plans, how I was stressed about my plans, how sometimes things are stressful.... I said "I'll probably need to wait at least four years to get [my plans] started."

And here comes the lovely part.

He said, "Four years seems like a long time. Why don't you just start sooner?"

He took my shocked silence as a sign to elaborate.

"For example, you could just [do this clever thing] and [do this clever thing] and have all your bases covered. And then you can get on with life."

You know what? He was right. I CAN do those things. A lot of my dreams are projected into the future, to commence at some unknown time, if I get a lot of other stuff done first. But waiting endlessly to start living your dreams can, for lack of a better explanation, suck a lot. You feel like you're in a holding pattern. You wonder if you'll ever get to live your dreams at all. You lose purpose.

My cousin has led an extraordinary life, largely due to his attitude. He's a "yes" kind of person. He dreams big, and then follows through. He is calm, but driven too.

It was nice of him to nudge me along. I'm pleased to report that my dreams are well within reach, and in the name of seasonal appropriateness, I'm giving some serious thanks.