Turning A Dream Into Reality

Is there anything more exciting than the ability to create? I would be hard-pressed to think otherwise. In rare moments, when my mind has time to think outside of its processing and droning, I find myself in total awe of the world in which we love. Awesome, it is, to see the creations of nature and mankind intertwined in an ambivalence dance.

As a child, I had a deep appreciation for nature and an imagination that stretched over miles and miles of fantasy. I’d run around on a hot blacktop wearing a crown of clovers and a dandelion necklace. Some of my most prized possessions. Even now, I can recall how the air smelled and how the grass felt on my legs as I sat quietly tying one delicate flower to another.

With age, a person tends to find out more about their talents and strengths. I, however, was a late bloomer. While my brother developed his art skills into magnificent masterpieces and my sister exercised her robust vocal cords to bring forth smooth honey-like melodies, I still played in the dirt.

Oh, the immense warmth of dirt on a hot summer's day. There is absolutely nothing like it. I recall a summer when I was about fifteen years old. My family and I went to visit my uncle in Monterey, California. It was there that a passion came alive within me. I will never forget the deep coffee color of the dirt as we drove past the artichoke fields. I wanted to jump out and the soil through my fingers. There was something about that soil that excited my soul! That soil was the very foundation for creation. In that soil, there lived life and the ability to create more of it. Who wouldn't leap for joy at the thought of that?

After that trip, Gardens and plants became more fascinating to me. The only problem was that we were constantly moving from state to state due to my mother's profession, so there wasn't much space or time to dedicate to a Garden. It wasn't until many summers later that I had the opportunity to help on a small farm and grow some seeds of my own. And when I saw the first corn seedling sprout, I was hooked for life. Then to add to my excitement, I was introduced to the cast of characters that make farm life possible; cows, pigs, chickens, horses, sheep, and, goats. It was that summer that I decided farm life was the life for me.

It was then I started to formulate a dream that I hoped would become my reality.

Now, I could sit here all day writing about the years that passed after farm living, but in all honesty, they weren't full sunshine in rainbows. I went straight from the farm to city living. And to make matters worse, I had officially entered adulthood! I have always been independent, so I thought I would slide into adulthood like a happy kid on a waterslide. Boy, was I wrong. Adulthood brought me new challenges and unexpected heartache. Dreams of hanging clothes on the line with the distant sounds of farm animals playing in the background became almost like a mist blowing in the wind. Concrete sidewalks and bars around the trees declared, "You cannot plant here! Don't even try."

Corporate life asked for more logic and less imagination and that's just what I gave them. That is, until one day, a package of seeds caught my eye. I bought them without much thought, planted a few, gave them a drink of water, and then went on my merry way. I had almost completely given up on my seedlings until one day, a little green sprout slowly pushed from the dirt a brought forth a renewed sense of purpose. A dream that I had nearly forgotten now became clearer than ever within my mind. A few months later, I packed up my car and made my way from Philadelphia, PA to Tremonton, UT.

Living in Utah has allowed my dreams to take root in unimaginable ways. I have matured my dream of the "Farm Life" into planning a homestead. I have met an incredible man who ventured with me all over Utah and Nevada to find land he could call his own. Together, we learned how to make Farmer's cheese, bread of many varieties, elixirs, butter, and more. We have grown numerous plants and have transplanted them in sunny Nevada on the land we will one day call home. Few things bring as much joy as much as looking out on land speckled with small duct tape flags, I made to mark our growing plants. We bought flags, then left them three hours away at home.

Knitting, herbology, Maple tree tapping, beekeeping, agriculture, collecting dye from plants like Dyer's Woad, and calculating the cost of building a homestead are just a few more hobbies I have picked up on this incredible journey of turning my dreams into reality.

I know what you're thinking, "So Jasmine, fun story and all, but what is it that you exactly create?"

Well, simply put, I have many hobbies at the moment. I create a lot of different things. I am living a life that requires going back to the basics. What is my hobby? My hobby is homesteading. At least for now. One day I hope it will be much more than that. One day, I hope to say that I helped create new life, new dreams, and a new future on what is now a rather dry and dusty parcel of land.

My hobbies now are just stepping stones to what I hope to one day call, an absolutely incredible life.