Doing vs. Talking

When my JayBee project was featured in the Tiny House Blog, one of the comments added to that post was "Glad to see you're a doer not a talker." I've been thinking about that comment on and off ever since.

Perspective is everything when considering whether I am a doer or a talker. I'm sure my son, who is 25 years old, would sputter and laugh if he knew someone thought I was a doer--especially as it relates to building a house. All he has known his entire life is that I have talked periodically about building a house, complete with periods of house drawing and model building but never, until now, actually building.

Yes, there are things I decide I'm going to do and then I proceed to do them right away. But, just as often, I have an idea or dream that either takes years of methodical plodding to realize, or predates its time by years. One example is this house-building thing. I could not foresee years ago that this dream would eventually find its time. Until now, it looked like a dream that might go unfulfilled.

Here's another example: When I bought this property 20 years ago, I told my son (four years old at the time) that one of the exciting things about this move was that we could build a raft and use it on the river in the summertime. Maybe it's not surprising that he didn't express any enthusiasm for this idea at the time. Adding to some conversation we were having one winter evening eight years later, I said, "That's why I said years ago we should build a raft and travel the river with it." His (12 year old) eyes grew wide and he gasped, "Could we really DO that?!" So, the following summer, we built a raft and lived on it for a week--traveling south on outgoing tides and then north on incoming tides to return home. (My first tiny home!) We had so much fun that we repeated the adventure--with some modifications to our raft, and staying out on the water two weeks at a time--four more times before my son left for college.

My point is: I have learned--and I mean it with the joy of hard-earned discovery--that some ideas and dreams do not need to be rushed. If a great idea spurs a person to immediate action, great. In other cases, however, even though talking may be the only activity taking place related to a dream today, one should not assume that the idea will forever stay only in the realm of talking. It's worth paying attention... so that magic moment in time--that dream's time--is recognized when it appears and is grasped fully with both hands and open heart.