What if dreams really do come true?

There I was, stuck in a dead-end 9-5 job in a Great Plains state famous for wheat. And sunflowers. Now, I admit that wheat and sunflowers are wonderful commodities. You can get bread from wheat and sunflower seeds from sunflowers, both of which have made people rich. But I wanted something more. Or at least different. I wanted a change of scene.

I am a dreamer, and while imprisoned in my 9-5 cubicle, doing work I hated doing, I'd dream. I'd dream of mountains and beaches, a beautiful woman on my arm, good times galore, but mostly I dreamed of doing something I love doing and getting paid for it. I was actually doing that part-time, after my 9-5 shift, right where I was, there in the Land of Wheat and Sunflowers, but I wanted to expand my horizons. I wanted to do what I love doing and get paid for it, but in different places.

But I was stuck, or at least I felt stuck. And then the world of the World Wide Web found me, and I was transformed.

I read of people who were--wonder of wonders--actually DOING the things they wanted to do with their time. I read of other work-a-day schmucks like me who had flung all caution to the wind and become their own bosses. They became entrepreneurs, started their own home businesses. "I don't need to be told what time to start or quit working every day, I can determine that myself," they said. And that is when I first knew my life was about to change.

I would kick my day job to the curb. I would leave the Land of Wheat and Sunflowers and relocate to one of the loveliest areas on the continent, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. More accurately, the foothills thereof, where I'd had family living for years and years, and whom I only rarely visited.

So I took action. I had help, yes, but first I made my choice and then the help came.

It's not a mansion by any stretch, but my little place in the country has a creek behind it, precious few visible neighbors (but they're cool neighbors), and a big ol' hill behind the creek covered with trees, and there is even what I believe to be mountain laurel up there. It's nice, real nice.

Spring and autumn are just plain miraculous around here. I'm about 30-40 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway, where my favorite hiking trails are located.

Oh sure, the master bedroom needs painting and I have floors that you'd swear you've encountered before, in a carnival fun house. The flower beds have too many weeds but lots of the flowers actually survive and thrive! Heck, I'll even have home-grown tomatoes and onions this year, Lord willin'.

Yeah, it's nice.

But what of "doing what I love to do?" I've done some of that, yes. Ironically, I've done it mostly by returning to the Land of Wheat and Sunflowers for gigs, and have enjoyed it tremendously each time. (I still have family and friends there, so I love going back home when I can.) This particular aspect of my dream may or may not proceed as it has, because one thing I'm learning is that dreams can change, a little or a lot, and either way is just fine. It's all about the journey.

I may post photos of my new stomping grounds on this blog. It's a new blog, though, you see, so I've yet to determine how it will go. You can help by leaving comments, sharing your dreams, asking questions, questioning answers. The sky's the limit.

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So here I am now, in my country fixer-upper, in the foothills, and most days I can hear the babbling brook in the back yard by merely opening a window. I'm grateful.

And I've thus proved to myself, with a good deal of help along the way, that dreams can, and do, come true.

Small potatoes, you say? Perhaps. But I figure, you start small and work up to bigger dreams as you gain confidence, and that was my starting place.

And so this blog is born. I want to dream bigger dreams, and see them come true. I want to transform every area of my life that begs to be transformed, and I want you to come along, too, and dream your dreams. I want to see how you are transforming the parts of your life that you want to improve. We can help each other along the way, you and I. Come along and see.

Care to share a dream, big or small?