It's almost too easy...

I love to travel. Since I was 13 years old, I have been saving money all year and going on summer mission trips to foreign countries, mostly in central America, and one big one to Africa when I was 19. On our honeymoon, we took a "road trip" up the East Coast, since I'd never been to that part of the U.S. I've gotten to visit much of the U.S., and there's still a lot to be seen.

A friend linked me to a website where you can fill in all the states you've been to, and then you get a map with all of your "visited" states in red and the "to be visited" states white. It was so fun to see the map fill up with red. It was the white states that bothered me. There is so much to be seen. My vision for my family for so long was to make as much money as we could, pay off debts, get a house, buy things that make me happy like furniture and toys and cars..blah blah blah. Try to "consume" our way to happiness. That's what the president suggested, isn't it? Go out there and buy stuff and build America up again.

I'm slowly discovering, that this is no longer my big dream. I want to see the world. I want to show my children all of my favorite places, and make new memories with my husband in some of his favorite spots. I want to visit Oregon, Dustin's favorite state. The details in which he described the boat docks in the morning, the detail in the sky, the beauty of the people he met...Oregon must be seen. I want to visit Vermont, especially in the Autumn. Autumn is my favorite season, and I can think of no other place that I would like to spend the season in than Vermont. I want to visit my family in Canada and California (again) and the Carolinas and Florida...

When talking to Dustin about this a few nights ago, it seemed so hopeless. We can't live off of credit cards. We have to find some job that would allow this travelling and still sustain us throughout the year. Dustin dreams big, he'll think of a way.

So last night, we're lying in bed and Dustin is talking about how much he loves running. He's on day #2 of his running adventures and he asks about some fun marathons he can enter. Of course, there's the annual run up the mountain, in our hometown in Arkansas. But other than that, he wants to train and compete. And then it hits him... we'll travel, he'll enter marathons, win the money and just do that for awhile. Two birds, one stone. I smile, at his little fantasy, my dreamer.

I tell him "Thank you. I can sleep easier tonight knowing we've got it all worked out. You just have to win, right?" It's almost too easy...

posted by mindi11 @ 3/31/2005 11:36:00 PM