The Dream

The Dream, as I've come to define it today, is a simple life in a small, one-bedroom house in the Ecuadorian countryside, with a 360-degree view of the majestic, green, Andes Mountains from my doorstep, my beautiful bride-to-be and Woman of My Dreams helping make fresh lemonade and smoothies from the tropical fruit that fell in the garden, and a year-round climate of 75 and sunny that means I spend most of my time without a shirt and rarely hear a complaint. What do I do with my days?  Well, on the weekends, I either have friends over to drink beer and kick the ball around in the yard, or we catch the bus south a few miles to the hippy, backpacker town of Vilcabamba, where we can either hike to the river and swim and cliff-jump or just chill on a shady bench in the square and eat ice cream cones and people-watch.  If we're up for more adventure, we can take the bus 45 minutes west to the Amazon Rainforest--my absolute favorite place on Earth--where we can trek to waterfalls while looking for spectacled bears and camp in thatched huts.  Further away but still within reach of a weekend are white-sand beaches on the Pacific coast, major historical cities like Cuenca and Quito, and countless colorful indigenous villages where we can soak up the thousands-of-years-old culture with chicha (corn-wine) and cuy (roasted guinea pig)...

During the week, Diana and I stay in her native city of Loja--The Music Capital of Ecuador--where we go to the movies like everyone else (two thumbs up for the new Jumanji!), see the symphony orchestra as much as we can, enjoy the city's free outdoor concerts in the main square every Thursday night, and always find a bar on the weekends with a live band that's killin' it.  On Saturday mornings, we shop at the street market and buy all of the fruits and veggies we'll need for the next week, and then we cook (I learned to cook, Mom!), watch Netflix (Sherlock is awesome!), and inevitably fall asleep to Ed Sheeran love songs...before waking up on Monday morning to make coffee and write some stories.

In short, I can finally see and feel and taste my dream after many attempts to attain it; at last, my reality matches my Heaven and I've found my True Love and Purpose.  For whatever reason--Destiny, I suppose--my lifelong ambition has always been to settle into a quiet life in the mountains somewhere, where I can be free to day-dream in a hammock and write stories for a living, so now, on the brink of achieving just that--exactly what I've always wanted--I encourage you all to follow your own dreams, find your own passions, and never say no to your heart.  This blog and this book are evidence that what Paulo Coelho writes in The Alchemist is true--"When you want something enough, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."  As I make this humble effort now to fully realize my dream and reach transcendence, I just hope that my stories inspire others to listen to their own calling.

MUCH LOVE!





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