Home is wherever I'm with you!

2012 is the year I find a home.

Sooo... there's this meme going around about reflecting on 2011 and determining your theme for 2012. And that's my theme: 2012 is the year I find a home.

In 2011, I wrote out a list of intentions I called "Learn-Go-Do." I didn't get to all of them, but I did get a great start on them - I went to Spain, visited three American cities I to which I'd never been, finished the first Rosetta Stone module to improve my Spanish, learned how to knit lace and how to needle felt ... I was busy. And I'm resolved to keep the list going as a living document of intention.

On the bottom of the list, however, was a one-word item.

It said:
"Move"

As in, move into a new house. For the first five months of 2011, I was pretty sure I was going to pick up and move from Houston to Seattle during the summer. But then a whole bunch of stuff happened that turned everything upside down. So I waited. And waited. And the waiting became a holding pattern.

Now, I don't know where I want to move. I have a heart divided.

Here's what my heart wants:

• The Pacific Northwest. Trees! Family! Huckleberries and coffee stands! Lakes!
• Texas: Sun! Friends that have become family! An economy that has stayed relatively stable!! Did I mention - sun!?

HOW COULD ANYONE DECIDE?

A holding pattern is no good. I'm not into that. I need to get serious about this decision, and so:
2012 is the year I find a home.

In the place where I work, when a big change needs to happen, we establish a vision, and then we determine the steps to getting there. So I'm going to outline the vision here, and then the steps will come in other posts (as I think of them...).

THE VISION

A year or so ago, I took a course called Mondo Beyondo: An Online Course in Dreaming Big. In the course, you create a list of the big dreams you have for your life. In my list, I wrote this:

I live in a house in the woods. It's near water. There's a garden for vegetables. Maybe it's a cabin. No dogs, but 1-2 cats. Chickens. There's a porch with a swing and room for nieces and nephews to come visit. They can stay all summer. In the morning, drinking coffee on the porch every day (it NEVER gets cold in this place). Friends live nearby (or on the property). We have a little community.

I think my vision today is similar. Here's what my heart desires in a home:

• Family and/or friends are nearby
• I can gradually increase the amount of food that I will produce on my own (just gardening and chickens in the beginning, but maybe moving up to goats -- my mom calls this dream "the farm")
• My house is small and so I have a minimal footprint
• I can work from home comfortably
• Although I'm in the country, I am near enough to a city that I can enjoy the cultural events that I like

I realize this is a big dream.

But I took a course. I'm certified in dreaming big.