005. Dreams and wishes

As I drove into the small hamlet of Glenlyon, with its avenue of magnificent old oaks lining the road through the town, my car seemed to stop of its own accord outside what used to be "our cottage" beside the general store (photo below). How I desperately wanted to drive in through the rusty old gate, unpack the car and settle in for the rest of my life.

General Store, Glenlyon, Victoria, Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the darkness I imagined I could see the girls playing in the open ground beside the house and hear their squeals of delight.

I could just make out the old deserted bluestone church on the hill where we'd walk the dog and where they would create "fairy gardens" beneath their favourite pine trees.

And I imagined them happily riding their bikes along the back road (photo) behind our cottage as they loved to do in the wide open spaces without traffic.

Have you ever noticed how your dreams and wishes never seem to work out the way you imagine? Are they really inner messages we often get wrong, glimpses of a destiny or plan written into our life's journey, a vague inner knowing we respond to unconsciously, a dream we dreamed before we were born? Then we wake up and forget the dream.

English: Hepburn Shops (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With a heavy heart I drove on to Hepburn Springs where Barbara and Geoff had offered me one of their small one-room holiday flats for a short time until the next holiday season at a very cheap rate. After that I had no idea where I would live or how I could survive.

(In the photo at right that's my flat beside the last shop in the group.)

I collected the key and drove on to the flat, hastily unpacked the car and collapsed into bed. The long, long day was finally over and I was exhausted.

What hadn't fully dawned on me yet was that tomorrow would be the beginning of the rest of my life.

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." [WORDSWORTH]

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Today Neil Smith is an author and blogger working from home in a quiet fishing village across the bay from Melbourne, Australia. He has authored 3 non-fiction books including 'The Mystery of Granny's Ghost'. Visit his book website at neilwjsmith.com and his 'Work From Home' blog at neilwjsmith.info.
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