I have learned this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. ~ Thoreau

• A dream job: working with the ACLU or some other non-profit organization that promotes UU ideals, perhaps even a UU church
• A purpose: writing what I want, when I want, not to feed myself but to live; publishing things if it pleases me and the things happen to catch the eye of an editor
• A home: white, white, white walls, floors, shelves, etc., like a great big blank canvas to be filled with colorful dishes, paintings, rugs, furniture, and BOOKS!
• A family: holidays with a house full of old friends and their little ones running around, making noise, everyone in a kitchen cooking together and talking together, lots of people bunking down in the guest bed
• A love: a little boy with dark curls and fair skin who gets a little overprotective and is slightly moody but also artistic and bright and energetic, surrounded by friends that he can grow up alongside and dutifully patient with his smothering mother
• A friend: a husband, or maybe just a companion, who laughs easily and often, who knows much about things that i know little, who tells me wonderful stories, who reads to me, and who pulls me down out of the clouds when daydreaming is becoming bad for my health
• An education: several degrees in things that interest me, and honors to go along with them
• A change: the knowledge that the world is a better place because i have lived