Don't get bogged down by the details...

I had a great conversation with a friend yesterday about possibilities. Such as: going to Europe with two young children in tow, running on a regular basis, cooking using only locally grown food, making myself and my children a new wardrobe for spring and summer, coming up with a totally cool kids clothing line made from recycled materials, AND having an amazing garden tended by kids. Not just my kids, but kids all around Missoula.

If I think about any one of these things too hard, I get dizzy, too many details. So, I am defying all rational thought and plugging away as if this is all very do-able.  With elation I will do what is required when it is required, and I won't sweat it otherwise.  I don't care that some of this requires money that I don't currently have, or time that I am in desperate need of. I will find the money and the time. The Moon and Randolph families who lived on this Homestead from 1889 to 1995 contended with much harsher economic woes. And time restraints? They GREW most of what they ate, and MADE most of what they had out of old stuff. And they operated a business selling eggs, produce and coal. Emma Randolph mothered FOUR boys, cooked from scratch and kept Bill in line--among the several thousand other things a-mom-a-century-ago did.

And Bill, he kept his dream of becoming an inventor. The photo below is an invention idea Bill had that he actually sent to the Defense Department. It is an anti-submarine defense plan. And although the government didn't take him very seriously, the fact that he followed his passion and sent it to them anyway is so great. 

I recall dreaming about living on a farm someday and having kids running around chasing chickens.  That came true.  I didn't sit around worrying about the details too terribly much.  I just lived with direction.  My dad is an eternal optimist in many ways.  During more skeptical times in my life, I resented that about him.  But now I feel that same sense of possibility.  Maybe I'm just too stubborn to let go of my dreams; I know I've been accused of that.  But if stubbornness gets me there, it's worth the accusation.