Over a decade ago, I began to dream. I told anyone who would listen what that dream was. "Close your eyes and imagine", I would begin, "that you are driving down a long driveway and the property is surrounded by trees. You will have the house on one side and the studio on the other. When you walk it, there is a great big fireplace with a seating area and perhaps a coffee bar. Upstairs is a loft where you can practice yoga and look at the view".
I spent the next decade of my career dreaming about that possibility all of the time. I've asked friends and apparently I started talking about it well before my twins were born. But I just didn't know how I would make it happen. I had a family to support and couldn't just up and leave my job for something so uncertain. It's just not in my nature to do that. So I went to work each day wishing and hoping that someday, I would be close to the water and have my studio. I loved my career, especially the people and places I got to see along the way. My heart though, just continued to tug and tell me that there was something else that I was supposed to be doing. I never did listen on my own I might add. I was forced to listen when I started getting chest pains and severe anxiety from stress. I would spend a couple of years going through every emotion imaginable until I finally gave it to the realization that we would be ok and that it was time to release a bit of control. I decided that instead of fighting so hard to be fit enough to go back to work, I would put my effort into being well enough some day to live my dream, in whatever form it would come.
So we moved home to New Brunswick in the middle of a pandemic. It was one of the hardest things we'd ever done but the focus on the goal of being close to family kept us grounded enough to complete the move with sanity in tact. When we arrived we were in quarantine for 14 excruciating days and months later there didn't seem to be an end to the ups and downs of the pandemic in site. When we arrived at our new home, I hadn't thought that I would use the detached garage as a studio due to the size. I someday wanted to host yoga classes and there wasn't nearly enough space inside. A few months later, going stir crazy with all of the staying home and I told my husband that I desperately needed a place of my own that was quiet so that I could practice/teach yoga and write/record. He said it was time for me to reconsider the detached garage. I had written it off as a possibility, but circumstances were forcing me to have another look.
Now if you were to go back through my journals, you would see that I'd always dreamt that the studio that I would someday built would include a lot of woodwork and would be built by me and my Dad. This always seemed like it would be tricky because I'd been relocating all over the country and my Dad was in British Columbia. As fate would have it, he moved home in the midst of COVID as well. It felt like serendipity had brought us together to bond again and make this dream a reality. You'll see above that we started by insulating and drywalling. There were no drawings. Just my dad and our imaginations put together one step at a time. Even though Dad and I could have done the work (and been in a huge amount of physical pain later) I hired a carpenter, an electrician, a mudding and taping guy, and a painter. Part of my daily practice of finding serenity is to recognize when I am at my limit and to ask for help. We did a great deal of it ourselves but we're extremely grateful that we had a few extra tradesman make time in this busy building season for my little studio.
So it all went perfectly to plan and there were no hiccups at all. Ha! No. Renovating, I have learned whether I wanted to or not, is all about the unexpected. It's all about buying something and then realizing it wasn't the right one. It's all about loading 400 sq feet of flooring into a truck and then off the truck and a new one on the truck and so on. That's when you realize that the flooring you picked was way pricier than the other stuff and cheaper one is gorgeous! So this project taught me a lot about adjust as we go, being ok with the unexpected and enjoying all of the exciting moments on the journey when they come.
It is my belief that over the past decade, I was working on manifesting this dream without even realizing it. You may notice that it didn't come to me exactly as I thought it would. My property is indeed surrounded by trees. I do have a rather long driveway and the studio is separate. I even have a water view of my pool from the little loft area. It didn't end up being the scale I thought it would be but it's even more beautiful. Due to the pandemic, I'm even teaching yoga from this space even though it's online. I have the fireplace and the cozy space. Whether or not it cam in the exact form that I thought it would, I'm in love with each and every inch of this space. I'm now all set up for filming yoga and writing. I couldn't have done it without the incredible support of my dad and the people who helped along the way. I will be eternally grateful for this dream come true!
I hope you're finding ways to make your dreams come true, even if in unexpected ways. Until next time dear serenity seekers!
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