When I was “retired” in late 2008 I really didn’t retire. I continued to try and occupy my days with a “job”. So it was that I began to build a online “publishing empire” aimed at the Appalachian Mountains that had captured my dreams.

The beginnings had been there before I was laid off from my job, but I expanded the “dream” to include all of the chain in the United States. I started doing research…Began publishing articles…Producing graphics…In other words I had a job that occupied me for most of a working day each and every day of the week. I even had a “editorial calendar” with specific days of the month to do specific tasks on specific sites.

At certain points during the year I would burn out a bit from all of the forced activity and pull away from the “job” for a while. And somewhere in all of this, I seem to have lost the dream that started it all…

Suddenly, I have found myself spending more time than usual sitting outside and watching the world around me. That’s something I haven’t done in quite a long time. I have become acquainted with the birds and the squirrels that share our little piece of Texas. I have watched as a family of Eastern Bluebirds has grown up in the trees above. I have watched the return of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds to the mimosa tree that shades our chair and bench out back. I have listened to the mockingbirds sing the sun up from their perch at the top of a tall pole planted in our old garden.

Sometimes I spend most of a day sitting and reading. While I read my eye may be caught by the sparrow chasing the hawk from tree to tree…The flash of red as a cardinal protects his territory from intruders…The knock, knock, knock of an acorn being beat upon a tree limb by a bluejay trying to get to the kernel inside. Or, I might just find myself staring at the layers of green tints that make up the trees in my backyard as it fades to the woods behind us.

I don’t think my time has been this unstructured since my teens. I find I like it…

Dreams grow…Dreams change…Some dreams fade into other dreams…Do you want to walk this dream with me?