The Pin in My Red Balloon
>> Tuesday, August 14, 2007
From the beginning of Steph's and my relationship we have dreamed of one day living in Vienna. There have been times when the dream has been stronger than other times, but it has always been there, and often it has been that dream that has sustained us through some very difficult and stressful times.
Vienna represents a number of things to us, but most of all, it is home. In our heart of hearts it is this dream that sustains us, and when the world seems to be falling apart around us, we will often cuddle next to one another and talk of a time when we will be in Vienna sitting in Cafe Diglas, or Cafe Frauenhuber, or walking down the Kärntnorstraße, hand-in-hand as we did nearly two years ago when we were on location for the filming of Mozartballs. For ten years, even before we met, Steph has been doing research about a move to Vienna--what is required, what it will cost, the cost of living, regulations, visa requirements, etc., and she has been a member of an online ex-patriot forum ever since we returned from Vienna in September of 2005. We have made contacts in Vienna, and are now waiting for the day when we will be in the financial standing to make the move.
It is little wonder, that when I was recently attacked by someone close to me about my "unrealistic" dreams of moving to Vienna, that I took tremendous offense, and reacted with anger and indignation. How dare she? This is our life's dream! (We even have a huge map of Austria pinned to our bedroom wall on which we have pasted pictures and sayings from magazines--our "vision board", as we learned about in The Secret.) It was as if I was walking down the street carrying a large, beautiful, perfect, shiny, red balloon and she came along with her long, sharp, pin and maliciously stuck it. Her words were sharp, insensitive, and cruel, and I chose to end the conversation very abruptly.
There are three things I won't let anyone mess with--my children, Steph's and my relationship, and our dreams of a life in Vienna. We don't know if our dreams will ever come true, but god help the person who tries to discourage us!
Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get half through
Why don't you realize, Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
6 comments:
It's good to have a dream and I admire your fierce hold on yours! I think my dreams all died. There's not a lot of hope left much less dreams. Life is too damned lifelike these days.
I know how easy it is to get stuck in the "lifelikeness" of life, but Steph and I are both dreamers. If we didn't hang on to our dream, we would probably die. In fact, we found one another because both of us dreamed of finding "the one", and we kept looking until we found each other. :)
OMG! I have an idea. Thank you so much! A dream of mine is to move to England. Because of your "pin in balloon" blog, that is what I will do; get a map and pin it up on my wall, spend time researching exactly where it is I would like to live, find out COL and specs for that place and all such tasks a person would do before actually moving. This will make my "dream" seem so much more real and actually make it more of a goal than a dream. ya know? thanks for the story- it's like a light came on.
I used the map idea in the late 70's when I wanted to move to England. Six months later I was there.
Put pictures of yourself on it too, so that you can SEE yourself there. I cut a picture of Westminster Bridge out of a magazine, then cut myself out of some old photo and glued it in as if I was standing on the bridge.
It works!
There's another thing to consider: not only will you be living in a beautiful city-of-your-dreams, but you will be out of this crazy-and-getting-crazier country. To me, that's a wonderful added bonus. I'm beginning to think that all free-thinking, freedom-loving, intelligent, peace-believing people will be safer getting out of the U.S.
You will get there. Ultimately, we all end up where we belong.
I hope for you both.
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