Dear Money Adventurer,
Dreams are seeds of hope that we plant for ourselves. With a wish, a plan, and loving determination, we nurture them hoping that they’ll take root.
Once upon a time, my husband, Forest, and I dreamed of living in an Earthship, a self-sustainable eco-home powered by renewable resources like wind and solar power. For years when our son, Noah, was younger, we would visit the Earthship community in Taos, New Mexico, twice a year. We fell in love with the community, the beauty of the desert, and another way of life, fuelling our dreams. We made friends with a family who lived there and had two boys around Noah’s age. We had dinners together, the kids would spend their days playing, it really felt like we belonged, and we could see ourselves living there one day.
After years of dreaming, we were about to make an offer on an Earthship of our very own when an opportunity came up to buy a townhome in Boulder instead. The timing was perfect for us. Noah was really getting into soccer, and this beautiful townhouse was suddenly available in our price range and happened to overlook the local soccer fields.
That’s how we found ourselves buying the townhouse instead of the Earthship in the desert. Shortly after we closed on our townhouse, the Earthship sold too, after years on the market without a buyer. It seemed to signal the end of our desert dreams and the beginning of a new path.
As we settled into our new home, we started nurturing other dreams, spending vacations in Santa Fe so I could dance with the incredible community there. Then the pandemic happened, and before we knew it, five years had passed since we’d been to Taos.
In February, we went back just to be in the stillness of the desert. This time we rented an adobe with breathtaking views of the desert in every direction. Being in Taos reminded us of how very much we love the desert, how the sage sings to us, and how it feels so much like home.
It was only a few days before he was looking at properties on Zillow and exploring the possibility of buying land. In a moment of serendipity, Forest found 2.5 acres for sale a few minutes down the road from the adobe we were renting. After going to look at it, Forest told me that I needed to see it for myself. When we went to look at the land together the next day, he had no idea how I would react to this big dream coming back to life. Then I got out of the car, took one look around, and announced that I wanted it. He laughed.
We walked the land together, all sagebrush and desert beauty, and then we put an offer in. We’re officially under contract, and the sale will close in a few months. This time around, the timing is right, we have the resources, and the price is incredibly reasonable compared to what we’ve seen around Boulder. Noah is getting older, and we’re planning for the future.
Later that week, we reunited with our old friends from the Earthship community for dinner. They had sold their Earthship and built a sustainable home that happened to be about a mile from where we were staying and our little plot of land down the road. Neither of them was surprised at our news. They’ve always known how enchanted we are by the desert, and we’re so excited to be close to them again.
The synchronicities didn’t stop there, though. One day Forest went out to talk to a man we had seen working on the gravel road behind the adobe, only to find out that he and his wife had just signed a contract for the plot of land right beside ours. The land had been listed for almost six months without selling, and we magically put our bids in within 24 hours of each other.
Dreams we dreamed so long ago, seeds we planted that we thought would never bear fruit, are coming to life, and I am amazed and grateful all at once.
Forest was a builder in his younger years, and he is so excited to finally have the opportunity to help design and build a home for our family. He’s about to turn 50 (yes, he’s my younger man), and my heart is so full knowing that this dream he’s carried for himself is coming to fruition.
Plus, we’ve always talked about rescuing animals later in life, but that would never be possible in our townhome. Our 2.5-acre plot of land means that there is space for us to build that dream when we’re ready.
I haven’t felt this kind of synchronicity in so long. Over the last few years, there has just been so much heaviness to carry. I am so thankful for this reminder that there is beauty, alignment, and dreams coming true all the time, too.
Sometimes our paths unfold in unexpected directions, only to lead us back to our dreams at the right time, in the right season, to find that those seeds we thought would never grow are flourishing to life.
Some dreams are born of small steps and detours.
Some dreams need longer to take root.
Some dreams come true when you least expect it.
And that’s ok.
Keep dreaming.
Keep planting those seeds and keep taking those baby steps, my friends.
Dreams really do come true one small step at a time.
