Queen of Dreams Radio
Archive for the ‘Dream Big’ Category
My mom is moving to the hill country just outside of Austin. She has had this dream in her heart for a VERY long time.
I’m excited for my mom. She has never had a dream house since I was in 6th grade, and even when she had that one, she was working all the time to try to pay for it so it doesn’t even really count.
This new house is so ‘her.’ She has always wanted to live in the Hill Country, which for those of you who don’t know, is down near Austin, Texas. She is totally going to LOVE being down there with all of those artists (she’s an artist – an amazing one who really has a divine connection where she just downloads tons of ideas).
What I love most, though, is that a couple of years ago, we talked about her dream of a new house. One never knows why someone has a dream. And, the truth is, you don’t need to defend your dream – your desire for it is enough. At that time, she was willing to write down her ‘wish’ and to put down on paper what she desired. However, like many people, she didn’t step into it. Instead, the dream simmered on the back burner.
When I went to her house this past February, that simmer had worked into a rolling boil. She was frustrated (a good sign that it’s time to make a decision) and she wanted more. She was tired of fixing things on her old house. She wanted her studio to have various comforts. As we harnessed the energy of creation, I asked her again, “What do you want?” She said she wanted a house that was conducive to having family over and having more get togethers. She wanted to get together and celebrate more often. For years, she has been so embarrassed about her house (she lives in a single-wide mobile home out in the country that has essentially been completely rebuilt inside – my stepdad is a master carpenter – and there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with a single-wide, it’s just that that house is not my mother’s dream house). Yes, it’s small, but we could all fit. Yes, it needs some repair, but the food is good and the company is even better. Like many people, she often would let her frustration about what she wanted to create overshadow the reality.
November 2010 must have been the beginning of my mom starting to let go. She decided that she WOULD have everyone over for Thanksgiving – despite the cramped quarters. She had been putting it off for years! We invited some friends, a couple who we knew would be non-judgmental and loving, who didn’t have plans for Thanksgiving. When I told my mom our friends would be coming, too, I could feel her grimace, and then right behind it, I could feel her letting go. I guess she figured if I had invited them, then it would be okay. If anyone knew what her house looked like, it was me!
At Thanksgiving, we arrived, and I could feel my mom was overwhelmed. I helped get everything organized and the dinner went off without a hitch. My mom has a heart of gold. She is super creative and always has all kinds of creative ideas of what she would like to do. I just wish she could relax and see that we all love her and that she is a hoot and so much fun! I believe it was after that Thanksgiving that she realized life is too short to be worried about dust and whatnot. Fourteen of us were cram-jammed into that little space, laughing and talking, and it was just fine. It was actually BETTER than fine. It was the FIRST Thanksgiving my mother has ever had for all of us and I am 43, my brother is 40, and my step-brothers are 40 and 39!!! They have lived in the same little single-wide mobile home for 23 years.
I truly believe that her letting go of what she didn’t want to see opened spaced for what she could receive in. In February, I asked her, “Are you WILLING to decide that you will have what you desire, understanding that you don’t have to figure out how it will happen?” She looked at me suspiciously, and then gave in (yes, I can be VERY persuasive!) and said, “Yes, I’m willing.”
After 23 years, they have purchased my mother’s dream home – a house in the Texas hill country, complete with hardwoods (she has always wanted hardwoods) and a three-tier deck in the back for plenty of bar-b-que cookouts and family gatherings.
This move, even with its added responsibility (my step dad’s mother has moved in with them), is a miracle. Plus, my stepbrother and his wife, who is a nurse and who works with the elderly like my step dad’s mother (who will also be going with them), is 10 minutes away and can step in to help my mom. Everything lined up like a magical story that only happens in Hallmark movies. I am SO happy for my mom! 
When my mom was over last week, she told me that she had written down a list of things she wanted in a new house two years ago when I told her to start dreaming and that if she didn’t believe in her dream, who would? She said this house has everything she had on her list. But, it wasn’t until she really allowed herself to ‘decide’ she could have it that everything aligned for this to happen. The full story is quite amazing… and such a testimony to creative spirit!
My mother would have NEVER dreamed that she would be having the experience she is having. She couldn’t… she literally couldn’t see how anything was possible since she always thought she had to do everything herself!
I have so many stories like this… amazing, miracle stories of creation and faith. I often say that it costs nothing to ‘make a true decision’… you can literally make a decision for nothing and get so much more than you can imagine. God is more generous in the giving than we often are in the asking or the receiving…allow that magic to flow!
About a year and three months ago, Mark and I went out to visit Dusty Rose (a.k.a. Mom). I had plans to take pictures and to help her set up her blog. This would be a surprise for her – my idea since I had signed up for a blog challenge and she had ‘wished’ she could, but she didn’t have a blog.
Like I had planned, I ran around and took photos. We went through a few thousand (or so it felt) WordPress themes, and finally found one she liked. With the blog set up, we started to write her ‘about’ page or her ‘bio.’ I traveled back in my mind to figure out the timeline… she moved out there when I had just graduated high school. My brother and step-brothers graduated from high school there. I estimated that she had been living her dream for about 24 years. I began writing her bio… “For more than two decades Dusty Rose has been living her country-fied dream of being an artist.” I finished the bio and gave it to my mother to read and edit.
She looked at it, and said (very matter of fact way), “I haven’t been doing my art that long.” I just looked at her like, “Mmmm, well, yes you have.” She said, “No, I haven’t.” And, I was like, “Remember, you lived out her and you worked for the state, and then after about five years of driving 120+ miles per day, you quit and started doing your art full-time?” It was odd to be arguing a timeline with the person who was supposed to have lived that timeline. She looked at my suspiciously, but then I started matching my own timeline to hers… I was married and then I was divorced (after nearly 8 years), single for four, and I’ve been married to Mark for 10, so… well, that’s more than 20 years!
She couldn’t believe it. She literally, in her mind, thought it had been about 10 years. Where does the time go?
And, that’s how our lives go. We dream. We create the dream. We live in the dream. Sometimes we forget to dream more – even when our world doesn’t really feel like a dream anymore.
I began to talk about how I remembered that her dream at the time was to quit her job and do her art full-time. She had, in fact, been living the dream for TWO decades! I began to say to her, “Mom, you are living the dream that you so desired many years ago. You are living the dream that MANY artists DREAM of… living out in the country, free to create as you wish, a full studio full of all kinds of art supplies, a big resource stash of reclaimed wood and metal at your disposal and a partner (my step dad) who can help you create anything!”
She nodded, but I could tell that she didn’t feel like this life was a dream.
I added, “Mom, if you don’t feel lucky to be living the life you are currently living, that just means you have an invitation to upgrade the dream. It’s time to dream a new dream.”
She listened, but I could tell she wasn’t sure that was really possible – perhaps, or even true.
All of this happened mid June 2010.
In late January of this year, I awoke to the idea to give my mom my treasured computer armoire. I called her and let her know I was ready to give it to her. The thing about my connection with my mother is that I’m extremely sensitive to her desires. If she needs help, I wake up feeling inspired to go help her. If she wants a new computer armoire, I wake up wanting to give her mine. This time, with the armoire, I could feel that she was ready for her own space. She had desires to have her OWN computer, her OWN desk and a yearning to have her OWN personal space. I see how easily my mom creates what she wants. I’ve always seen it – beyond the feelings of limitations, beyond the beliefs – and mostly because I’m usually part of the magnetic pull of her desires! A couple of months earlier she had said she would ‘pay’ me for my armoire if I was ready to get rid of it. I didn’t want her to pay me…at the same time, I wasn’t ready to let it go. About the same time she asked about the armoire, my step dad pulled Mark and me aside because he wanted to buy her a laptop and surprise her. Yes, her desires for personal space (she had been sharing a computer and desk with my step dad) were brewing.
Note… SHE did not go buy her computer, SHE did not go buy an armoire, SHE did not get someone to get her computer ready with all of the programs she needed. SHE did nothing but decide she wanted these things. The rest of us scurried around in the magnetic pull of her desire.
I believe that our conversation from June had been percolating… if you aren’t living your dream life, then what are you living?
When we arrived to deliver the armoire in February, we arrived to see my mom worked up. Not in a big way, but more in a way that was boiling under the surface. I walked right into the energy. I certainly wasn’t paying attention. All of a sudden, I took it all on. The anger. The frustration. The irritation. I began acting it out. Now, here’s the rub. I had been feeling similarly. Mark and I had had a long conversation on the way out to drop off the armoire. I was an energetic match.
Mark went to the store to get something. My step dad went to play Farmville. Mom and I headed out to her shop. I began to pay attention to what was bubbling up. I noticed a pattern in her that I also felt in me. It smacked of “I can’t because he wants something different from what I want.” I felt it with Mark. She felt it with her husband. I suggested four or five things, and every time she said, “I’ve been waiting on him to do it.” Soon, I could feel and notice the patterns. I was running the same patterns with my husband! Ack!
I harnessed the anger, the frustration, the irritation and declared, “Mom, if we aren’t living the lives of our dreams, then there’s only one reason… because we have not decided to! Let’s do it NOW – time to DECIDE!” I realized I had been holding myself back and making Mark my scapegoat. I saw the same in my mom. I had seen my step dad as someone who has always done what he could to give my mother what she desires. Same with Mark. He would do anything for me. What both she and I were bumping up against were our strong husbands who believe THEY know the best way for us to have what we desire. It wasn’t that they were trying to keep us from having what we want, it’s just that their way, their approach doesn’t necessarily feel good to us. We are both so sensitive, we tend to let things go instead of speaking up. We tend to dismiss, let go of things instead of making a big deal about it. However, in the process, we were mistaking this for ‘we can’t.’
Wow – what a HUGE a-ha! I knew it was time to shift this ancestral heritage. I knew I didn’t want to live this way anymore!
There we were sitting across from each other in my mother’s art studio. I started asking her, “Mom, what do you really, really want? No limits… what do you want?” As she spoke, I began to listen energetically…asking new questions as they came to me. Soon, she had her manifestation set. She was complete.
I’ll share tomorrow what has happened since then. It’s a GREAT story… I LOVE creation!
Last night I stayed up particularly late reading – 4:30 am late. Rico kept getting up and walking over to me and putting his massive head on my leg and whimpering. I felt for him. I certainly KNEW what he wanted.
Before I get into it his Christmas present, let me just say that dogs REALLY DO live in the PRESENT. I mean, he has been banned from snuggling on the couch since he began to get MASSIVE. I mean 140 lbs. – no problem, 175 – no problem, 180 – no problem. But tipping 200 lbs.? BIG PROBLEM with Italian leather!!! Which is the only reason we allowed him on the couch in the first place – it can be vacuumed easily and also CLEANED each day! But I digress. So, a couple of weeks ago, I was up late with him and I could tell he didn’t feel well. I cupped my hands around the side of his head and began to send some healing energy to him. I could FEEL he wanted to snuggle. And, in a moment of not really *THINKING* about what I was DOING, I patted the spot next to me on the couch and up he jumped. Within minutes, he had his nose shoved up against my thigh and was snoring away.
Of course, I’m not thinking about this as anything out of the ordinary. He’s been banned for more than a year now, so why would I think anything has changed? But, boy, did HE think something had changed! He began to ‘talk’ to us while WE were sitting on the couch! You know, his couch since I let him up ONE time! And, for those of you who don’t know what mastiffs do when they ‘talk’… well, let’s put it this way – they are LOUD and they do this growl, bark, whine thing all at once. They shake their head like they know EXACTLY what they are saying and WHY you should be listening to them. RICO, in particular, will throw in some down dogs and a few twirls to get his message across as he keeps looking at what he wants! In this case – THE COUCH!
I talk back to him like he’s a human. I tell him, “Oh no. You are not getting up here.” Logically, I know he senses the energy of NO more than he understands the words, but I still like to put the words with the energy.
For weeks now he’s been doing this, until LAST NIGHT, he looked SO PATHETIC that I almost – almost – could not resist him. In that moment, I wondered, What could I get for him that would make him more comfortable? I mean, I know it can’t be that comfortable to be over 200 lbs. sitting on the floor – he normally likes to sit on the hardwoods, probably because they are cool, but I have no idea.
Alright, one more story and I’ll get to the CUTEST, MOST ADORABLE , MOST EARTH CONSCIOUS doggie duvets!
Amidst these last couple of weeks, I mentioned Rico to Nana (Mark’s mom who lives with us), and said something to her about how I can tell how DEEPLY he sleeps when he’s on the couch. I wondered if it is because he can put his head on the pillow tops at the end of the couch or if it is because these couches are slightly tilted to the back, which means that they are like a little cockpit and for Rico that would mean his girth would be tilted to the back where he could relax and have no weight on his legs. I had mused about buying another couch and giving him one of our current couches in the den (he is more than 7 feet tall length-wise, so he takes up the entire six-foot couch when he ‘naps’ and isn’t curled into a ball. Then, she told me that one morning she woke to Mark’s computer alarm blaring – WONK*WONK*WONK. When she came in to the den to turn it off she found Rico snoring (yes, they snore and sometimes VERY LOUDLY) away and he didn’t even MOVE or open his eyes as she walked in to the room! That is some GOOD sleep. I knew it!
Okay, back to last night. I’m sitting here reading a book on Kindle and he’s whining. He wants up next to me. No doubt he wants some GOOD sleep, too. I’m wondering… what can I make for him? He outgrew regular doggie beds by the time he was 9 months old, so I had not even considered one in forever. Plus, I was thinking about the mess they end up being. We vacuum every day, but doggie beds… ew! There’s really no way to wash them. You just have to keep throwing them away – what a waste. That’s when the thought hits me – I need a DOGGIE DUVET! I need one the size of about three king-sized pillows next to each other. I can use the king pillows I’m about to throw out because they’ve gotten too flat – we have six of them. I am thinking, WOW, THIS IS A BRILLIANT IDEA, TINA! 
I think about how he likes to prop his head up on the pillow top at the end of the couch, and I think… WOW, IT WOULD BE GREAT IF HE COULD HAVE A PILLOW SOMEHOW. I am so amazed at how BRILLIANT this idea is I email my mother IMMEDIATELY to see if she can make my BRILLIANT creation. LOL But then, wait, what’s this? The idea that maybe… just maybe… someone else may have already done it? I log on to the web, and VOILA (sound the choirs and angels now, please)… someone HAS created what I’ve just envisioned as the PERFECT answer for our little Rico (well, not so little, but he’s still my baby).
Now, get this. She also has made the PILLOW!!! BONUS! So excited! TOOOO CUTE. I may have to get this for him right away and not even wait until Christmas because… really, life is too short to be uncomfortable, wouldn’t you agree? Does your pooch need one of these? Easy to fill… easy to wash?
I love that these are designed with the earth in mind! And, GOD BLESS her for making the size ‘HUGE’ for big boys like Rico!
Looking for a Dream Life:
I love when people are passionate about what they do and who they do it for. One of the most passionate people I know is Kathy Light. She has a book that helps people see why they rock, and she also facilitates loving, intimate retreats that hold women in the lap of love as they retrieve their true selves.
Kathy’s next retreat is coming up and will be held here in Texas just east of Dallas.
If you long to remember why you ROCK, take a chance to find out with Kathy at her upcoming retreat.
"Like many professional women my age, my time’s not usually my own. I’m up before dawn, taking care of business and family, working until very late, eating challenges like most people eat lunch. When I heard about Kathy Light’s Reasons Why YOU ROCK! Retreat last November, it seemed like just the thing — a weekend away to rest and relax and get away from work — just take it easy. I even invited a new friend to come along. I thought we’d have some time to visit.
I was right and wrong.
This past year, I’ve looked back on that weekend as a white space in my life. Not in a bad way–instead, it was much like defibrillation acts upon a heart that is fibrillating or quivering: it stops everything and lets a natural rhythm emerge. For the 40 hours of the retreat, I was–by choice–removed from the known, the familiar, the usual, and given time to think, to muse, to savor, to dream. I met a group of women who, like me, worked too much, cared for everyone else in our lives first, and didn’t take time to even consider why ‘we rocked.’ We talked about our reasons, opened our hearts, and told our stories. It wasn’t easy for me–not at all–but opening up that weekend reminded me that stopping for breath is what keeps us alive. Those women are still my friends, and talking with them or seeing them brings back that feeling of deep, deep breathing.
I think I cried the entire 40 hours we were there. Yes, it was emotional–all that savoring–but it was funny and touching and powerful in the simplicity of the idea: ‘You, Elizabeth–you rock.’ You’re special, and you do important and wonderful things, and you have reasons to stop and be still and enjoy where you are."
–Elizabeth Basden, Basden & Ivie, PC
If Elizabeth’s words have struck a chord with you, and if the weekend she describes sounds like just what you need, please join us for this year’s Reasons Why YOU ROCK! Retreat for women. We would love to have you there.
November 11 – 13 at the beautiful Crossroads Retreat Center in Lindale, Texas, just 80 miles from Dallas, between Canton and Tyler.
Click here for details and registration.
Early pricing applies through October 13th
Special discount for bringing one or more friends with you! Email for details info@kathylight.com.
Click here to register
I remember meeting Louise Hay back in 2008. I stepped up to the counter, and as I did, I thought of all of the lives that she has touched with her wisdom. Before I knew it, I was in a tsunami of energy – gratitude, thankfulness and love. The energy had nowhere to go to escape my body other than to stream out of my eyes in the form of tears. I couldn’t stop crying although I did not feel sad at all. This woman has dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. And, this book is no different other than she has teamed up with Life Coach Extraordinaire, Cheryl Richardson. What could be better than Louise Hay? Of course! Louise Hay with Cheryl Richardson! 
What happens when Louise L. Hay and Cheryl Richardson combine their collective wisdom into one book? Find out as you read You Can Create and Exceptional Life! You’ll feel as if you’re simultaneously having lunch with your best friends and also attending a master class put on by two leaders of the self-empowerment movement. The candid conversations between Cheryl and Louise will empower you, open your heart and mind, and give you the tools you need to create the exceptional life you’ve always dreamed of. These two amazing women are living proof that the spiritual principles they discuss really work. Order today and start creating your exceptional life! PLUS, you’ll automatically be entered to win one of many great prizes including a Kindle, a coaching session with Cheryl, or one of three fabulous trips! Visit wwww.CreateAnExceptionalLife.com now for additional details and special offers.