Turning Dreams Into Visions

Sarah sat in front of the blank cork board with her hands folded over her chest. She had never succumbed to this silly tradition before; she couldn’t imagine how throwing some keywords up on a wall would help pull her out of her streak of terrible luck. The past five years had been nothing but heartbreak and hard work. She was tired and ready to try just about anything to get out of the rut she was in. Including, apparently, starting her first-ever vision board.

She rolled her eyes at herself and picked up the first goal she’d cut out of the Cosmopolitan magazine her sister-in-law had left for her. Poppy’s peppy attitude was (almost) always what Sarah needed when she was down, but her “woo woo” rituals were just a little overwhelming sometimes. For instance, there was an entire ceremony she was supposed to perform when tacking each dream up. She couldn’t help but snort when she imagined herself holding the thin piece of paper to her chest to “embody the vision as deeply as possible.”

Sarah gazed at the photo in her hand: a fantastic mansion, complete with ivy crawling up the smooth stone walls and acres of grounds and gardens as far as the eye could see. It wasn’t this particular house she was hoping for, but her version of her perfect dream house, not too far away from where she lived now with her husband, Charlie, in a house he had once shared with his previous wife.

Her dream house once belonged to her grandparents, rather than an ex-partner. She had always adored the spiral staircase, the ornate wine cellar, and the floor-to-ceiling windows in the game room and her grandfather’s oval office. Teenaged Sarah had been deeply disappointed when, after her grandfather’s death, her grandmother moved to an apartment. She could understand not being able to take care of the four floors all on her own at her age, but she had secretly hoped the house would stay in the family. Instead, the house was sold to a stranger and had been falling into disrepair over the years since. She knew because she still drove by wistfully from time to time.

This house, owned by some Kardashian featured in Cosmo, was simply a representation of the dream home she wished she had enough capital to buy back for her own budding family. She touched her hand to her lower belly, thinking of the little bean she was growing, the one no one else knew about yet. Not even Charlie. She could see the three of them watching television at night in the family room, making dinner together in the spacious kitchen, and maybe even adding a hot tub to the wraparound deck. She had the vision. It was time to tack it to the board.

Sarah could feel the weight of the goal in her hand. Somehow the magazine paper suddenly seemed so much heavier than the metal tack in her other hand. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, feeling the pin sink into the cork. There. It was done. Vision number one.

The sound of keys unlocking the front door brought Sarah back to earth. She opened her eyes and shook herself out of her reverie as her husband came barreling through the door.

“Look what we just got in the mail!” he exclaimed, waving a piece of paper he was clutching tightly in his hand.

“What?” she asked.

“Do you remember that sweepstakes we entered as a joke at the last silent auction my work held?”

Sarah’s stomach jumped. That was for five million dollars. There were over three-hundred employees at Charlie’s company. They had laughed as they threw their names into the bucket.

She grabbed the mail in question from his hand and scanned the document. Holy shit. He was right. They had won.

The couple did the appropriate amount of celebrating (champagne, a little frivolous shopping, booked a nice trip) before Sarah brought up the dream house. They had more than enough to offer a hearty sum to the current owners, more than enough to incentivize an unplanned move.

It was this big move that triggered the attention of friends and family to their newly improved financial circumstances. The questions came in an avalanche of judgment and greed. Suddenly, everyone they knew had a hand held out, asking for everything from enough for a new car to paying for their niece’s college. It tugged at their heartstrings to turn their people down, but if they said yes to one, it was bound to snowball out of control. They could see how winning the lottery had ruined many families before them.

Sarah and Charlie knew the dream house was their destiny. How else could you explain starting a vision board one minute and receiving the funds to make it come true the very next minute? This was meant for them and they knew it.

They kept their heads down and restored the gorgeous home to its original glory and beyond. Their lives became a montage of home improvement projects, the excess money paying for elements they could have only dreamed of. She didn’t even have to put it on a vision board to make these dreams come to life anymore.

Sighing happily, Sarah realized today was the day to share her news with her husband. It had been long enough; he deserved to know. And now that their space was nearly up to snuff, she knew he would be excited and settled.

They sat on their back deck as the sun dipped low into the trees. They held hands and took in the view together for several minutes in sweet silence before Sarah brought Charlie’s hand over to her belly. She held it there and looked over at him out of the corner of her eye, watching as the meaning dawned on him.

There were no words. This was “it.” They had reached a level of peace and contentment in this new house they could never have guessed would come to them in such a way. Sarah sighed happily and closed her eyes, leaning back into her chair…

She opened her eyes to ask Charlie what he was thinking and jumped to her feet. She was back in her office, staring at the vision board she had just started. The Kardashian house stared back at her. What just happened?

Her phone buzzed with an incoming call: Mom. Her mom never called. She rarely texted, always thinking she was disturbing something critically important. Sarah answered.

“Hello?” she said, warily.

“Hi, honey.” The voice at the other end was shaky and tearful. Sarah gulped.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“It’s your grandmother, honey… she’s gone.”

Sarah sunk to her knees. She had known this could happen; her grandmother had been in heart failure for over a year, but they were hoping the newest heart medicine she was on would help.

The next weeks were a whirlwind of funeral details and getting effects in order. Sarah moved through her days in a blur of sadness, having been close to her grandmother. The loss caught her so off guard she had completely forgotten the odd hallucination she’d had the month before. Until Charlie came bursting back through the front door once again, another piece of paper waving wildly in his hand.

Sarah blinked at him, having what appeared to be an intense case of déjà vu.

“Guess what you just got in the mail!” he exclaimed.

“Did we win the lottery?” It was a joke, but it wasn’t. Charlie didn’t know that, though.

“Your grandmother’s will was settled… You got the house.”

“What house?” Her first thought was of course the dream house, but that had been sold years before.

“The dream house!” Charlie handed her the envelope and Sarah once again skimmed a document that told her their life was about to change.

It turned out that her grandmother had bought the house back from the strangers when she was diagnosed with heart failure. She had prepared to leave her granddaughter with the life she deserved, leaving a legacy in the process.

Tears welled in her eyes as the news sunk in. She hugged her husband, hardly believing their good fortune.

Time flew by in a parade of home improvement projects all over again, but Sarah didn’t mind. She would relieve this over and over if it meant she got her dream home in the end.

Back on their deck in their Adirondack chairs, Sarah took Charlie’s hand and placed it on her belly. The recognition lit up in his eyes and Sarah whispered, “I think we should name her Aurora.”

“I think honoring your grandmother is the perfect way to thank her for this life she gave us,” Charlie said, smiling over at his pregnant wife. She leaned over to kiss him before settling back in her chair and taking in the view.

She closed her eyes in contentment, breathing in the bliss…

She opened her eyes and laughed. She was back in her office, that damn vision board mocking her with its lone dream tacked to the middle of it.

Sarah picked up the next goal before she could get dragged back into another possible path to her dream outcome. She didn’t want to know how she was going to get there; she was ready to trust the process and let the universe take her where she was meant to be.

She looked down at the next item in her hand, waiting to be pinned to the cork. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath…