Filed Under : 
Dec.11,2010Last night while I was feeding Elaina for the last time before baby-bedtime, Todd and I watched the beginning of Up. The first time I saw it (in theaters) it brought tears to my eyes. This time was no different, but the tears were for a different reason.
Have you seen the movie? The opening scene contains a montage of a couple’s life. They have a dream of moving to Paradise Falls in South America and building their home – a dream they’ve shared since childhood. Of course, a dream this big takes money – so they start a savings jar.
The ambitious couple.
But then life happens. The jar is smashed open again and again because an urgent expense requires its use. Slowly they grow older, doing the frustrating dance of “one step forward, two steps back.”
Then she gets sick and passes away. They never made it to their dream. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.
I saw too much of myself in that montage. How do you build toward a big dream without letting everyday life get in the way? How do you keep your sewer from backing up, the branch from falling on your roof, the unexpected medical bill from popping up?
Well, you can’t. Those things will happen.
But our tenants have paid us rent twice now. It feels SO good to have someone else pay our mortgage. Now we want to buy our next property as soon as we can.
We’ve got to change the dance. We need to take three steps forward as fast as we can, so those two steps back don’t erase our progress. Because we’ll never reach our dream land without the finances to keep it running.
Tags :