“We can see it from the cemetery. This house that we think may be our next home.

As an albatross flies, it’s about a mile and a half away from us. We stand beside hundred-year-old lava rock grave stone markers, in a simple cemetery just down the street from where we currently reside. Between us and the peeking A-line rooftop of our dream house, lie grassy meadows, one steep valley, and several property lines with fences. Of the house, we can see nothing but windows…

It feels good to look out over green pastures at the only roofline in sight, imagining ourselves lighting up that house with warm, golden hues from the inside.”

The above passage is pulled from the “Lamp Lighting” post I wrote here on the Archives on September 30, 2013.

More than once, the Bohemian and I would walk down our country road to the cemetery and gaze out across the field at the windows of the home we dared to dream about. It felt possible, but uncertain. So close, and yet, so far.

Like any creation, perhaps, it begins with a desire, a dream, a vision. And then there is the doing. Your two hands, your mind, your action, that begins to herd atoms into some organized system shaped to resemble your wishes made real in 3D.

For a jewelry maker, it’s bead by bead on the string until some masterpiece can grace a neckline. For a spider, it’s filament cast, row by spiraling row. Always, there are unseen forces at work, elements beyond the control of the creator. But, ultimately, the doing is left to the dreamer.

We humans, busy with all this manifestation business, sometimes fix our vision on the steps at hand, not realizing the greater view.

And so it’s been for my family, elbow-deep in boxes. Loading and unloading them. Thoroughly cleaning cupboards. Trouble shooting water wells. Clearing rain gutters and gray water drains. Where? In that A-frame house we gazed longingly upon from the cemetery, only so many months ago.

Yes, February 1st we moved in, and it’s been shelf by shelf, room by room, of living this dream-come-true.

But last night we paused the chores. Jeb was at his father’s house, and the Bohemian and I had sunset to ourselves. We moved upstairs to the big window that looks out to a range of mountains, where the sun was an egg yolk breaking in golden ooze behind a hill. We sat quietly with the clouds that moved in mauves, ever slowly, past our view. All was quiet but for bird songs and the occasional trumpeting of a strutting rooster.

Looking out across the treetops, I could see the outline of Norfolk pines, markers of the cemetery where we used to visit.

“Do you see the pines in the cemetery?” I asked the Bohemian.

“Yep. I see them.”

“Remember standing beneath them and looking at this window from over there?”

“Yes. And we said we wanted to see the window all lit up with light from the inside.”

“I know…and now, look. Here we are on the inside of that window, looking back at where we used to stand. We’re here.”

The Bohemian rose and walked to the lamp at my desk.

“Then let’s turn on a light.”