Dreams come in all forms, from thoughts about how your life will turn out, to wishes about what type of car you'll drive one day to having your perfect house and so on. I would say that typically I'm not much of a dreamer. I tend to be more of a realist, certainly looking forward to things to come, but generally living practically, in the moment. I'm noticing as I grow older though, I do seem to be developing a dream of sorts--one that would become a mission, one that would recognize a passion, one that would establish a sense of purpose. I'm finding that as I live my day to day experiences, although I'm happy and content, I'm also ready to find that sense of purpose in life, the thing that makes me jump out of bed in the morning ready to dig into the job that is custom-designed just for me. I realize that I have a set of strengths, talents, gifts if you will. I'm at the point in my life where my children aren't quite so dependent on my help, my resp...
Brainy Boy and I just went on the coolest field trip ever this past Friday. His 5th grade class went to a coal mine in Pennsylvania and I went along. It was so sad to learn that back in the peak of the coal mining years, boys went to work full time in the coal mines at 10 or 11 years old. That was the exact age of most of the 5th graders touring the mine, and it really hit home with them. We were down in the mine for about an hour, then we toured a museum next door that held lots of artifacts and mementos from the mine and the surrounding community. It was staggering to find out that 99% of the world's anthracite coal (the type you burn in a furnace) comes from this particular area in Pennsylvania. Anyway, here's a mug of muh boy and me down in the depths of the earth.
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I always wonder how many lives it took for them to figure out all of the things that they know about mining...Like the air locks and such... I guess they're still figuring it out since I still read about miners that have died on the job each year. Thinking about this makes me appreciate my boring desk job..