Vegetable Contemplation

People have their own dreams of what they want their lives to be.

Maybe it’s success at work, to drive a better car or have a pool built in their yard. Perhaps they want four kids and a house in the country. Maybe they want a penthouse apartment in the city and annual vacations to the tropics.

Sometimes they want to work in soup kitchens or animal shelters or grow their own crops.

Me, I was never conventional in my hopes and aspirations. I never wanted a big house and a mortgage. I never wanted kids or the sort of responsibilities that tie people down. I never wanted a sports car or a ridiculous fur coat. I laugh when people say “Money can’t buy you happiness”. It might be true, but I admit, money sure helps.

Despite this, I’m more concerned with freedom than with money, although I’d like enough money to acquire the freedom, it goes without saying.

Because none of us are free and it’s a shame. We’re a slave to work and stress and other things that get in the way of fulfillment and happiness, because we have no choice. I saw a recent statistic that stated that something like 76% of people disliked, hated or were indifferent to their job. It hurts my soul that as people, we are resigned to spending all day working for someone else, to afford to live our lives when we’re wasting so much time.

I always wanted freedom. As a child I’d roam the countryside on my bike, loving the open space. As an adult nothing makes me happier than an empty beach or open blue skied prairies or vast red expanses of desert brush. Road trips make me joyful. I love to see old diners and old cars. I love to feel the sun on my face.

I like that my ties are to people rather than things. My feet itch so badly to keep on moving. I’m not sure they’re ever going to stop. I don’t have that nesting urge. I don’t like to be in one place too long.

I’d like to split my seasons between the Florida Keys, the Arizona/New Mexico deserts and the Canola filled prairies. I want to avoid winter. I want to swim in lakes and oceans and eat outside by firelight. I want to travel around seeing little places and travel overseas to see bigger ones. I want to paint outside by the ocean and drink cocktails watching the sunset over some distant desert mesa or Mexican vista. I want the person I love to be there too because this dream is worthless alone.

I want to wake up in harmony with the world and myself. I want to do a job I love and contribute something meaningful to society and not just earn a pay cheque.

The things I want aren’t big things, they’re just hard to acquire, but they shouldn’t be.

Really I just want endless summer.

And one day I am going to find it.