Lessons from the Lake House

So my grandparent's have lived in the same house for over FIFTY years. The house my momma grew up in. The same house where my aunt had her wedding reception. The backyard where my grandpa buried all sorts of pets when their time had come :)

Last week I overheard my aunt telling her friend about how my grandparents plan had always been to start remodeling their beach house a few years before they were ready to retire, retire, and live in their perfect little beach house. Knowing my Grandma's taste and my Grandpa's love for my Grandma I always pictured the house looking like this for my retired grandparents.
It's so easy to do this. I even think this this about 122 million times a day.

"Once I get my OWN place, then I'll start cooking better dinners."

"When I get to this number of the scale, then I can try out that new kickboxing class at the gym."

"After a have babies, that's when I will get in REALLY good shape."

"When we retire, then we can build our dream house."


I remember listened to my aunt tell her friend about my grandparent's plans, and then how when my Grandpa got sick, the remodel/move kind of went on the backburner.

I remember turning to my aunt and just feeling SICK. It's so easy in our twenties, thirties and even forties/fifties to just feel invincible. We daydream about the business we will start, the non-profit organization we would love to volunteer for, the opportunities or jobs we will take "later."

My gramps never got to live in his 'dream' home.

I bet he never in a MILLION years thought at this exact minute, his blueprinted "mancave" with the big screen TV would be a teenager's room. Full of cheerleading clothes, shades of purple paint and pictures of friends plastered all over.

I bet he NEVER would have guessed that his patio where him and my grandma would enjoy their nightly wine would be full of a 6 year old artist's chalkwork.

I bet he is just LAUGHING and smiling down on my aunt as she decides she is gonna be the one to just suck it up and tackle the prickly old holly bush. Everyone else has always been too afraid :)
Betcha 100 bucks my grandpa never thought there would be a room in this house with this color of walls or a big Taylor Swift poster for decorations :)
The backyard now has a little garden. My grandpa LOVED these malt shakes and burgers from a divey ole burger joint down the road. He would just be tickled the house now grows vegetables :)
So even though my grandpa never got to live out all of his life dreams, life has a funny way of working itself out.

I KNOW for a FACT that he is up there in heaven just bursting with happiness that four of his precious little granddaughters are living in his "dream house". He is SO proud of my aunt for all the hard work she puts into keeping the house like he would have liked it. Pink walls, Hannah Montana posters and all :) He wouldn't have it ANY other way.

I seriously cannot get over the feeling in my stomach when I realized how all of grandpa's "when I retire" never got to come true. Thanks Papa, for showing me how important it is to go after our dreams. Don't like your job? Think about finding a new one. Don't wait for the "economy" to look up before opening your art gallery. Or your bakery. Ya know what? The economy might NEVER flip around. You don't even have to get quite that drastic, folks. Don't wait for the rainy season to be gone before you start taking your nightly walks.Before you know it you might be 85 years old wondering why you never chased that dream, how you got into that walker, or why you are waiting for NOW to crack open that bible. Because even if things don't go quite how we imagined it, we have no IDEA what great things are in store for us :)

"One of the hardest things to realize is that our SOMEDAY is RIGHT NOW"