Following the Dream

Two years ago in 2010, our family was settled in Seattle, Washington. My husband had been a photojournalist and then a pastor at a large church for 11 years. He was the guy who came alongside people in crisis, visited the sick, conducted funerals, and occasionally painted a picture live during Easter service.

After gathering weekly with a group of close friends for about a year to talk about what making a change might look like for us, we took the leap. Jon, at age 52, was accepted in the Masters of Studio Art program at a small college in Indiana, a couple hours’ drive from both of our widowed mothers. He was accepted in April, our house sold in June, we moved in July and he started school in August.

May 5, 2012, I watched as Jon walked across the stage, shook the hand of the president and received his Master Degree. Across campus, 30 of his framed paintings and prints were hung in the campus gallery awaiting the gala opening event on May 19, which marked the opening of the grad student art show. (The pictures in this post are some of them.)

What a celebration it has been!  Stepping into a twenty year old dream at age 52. A new and exciting chapter of life opening, proving once again that in life it’s never too late. When we left Bothell, we couldn’t imagine what was ahead. Before we blinked twice it seems, he has finished his degree and the next steps are before us.

Now the next door of the adventure is ahead. We’re off to Germany for a year, where Jon will help remodel an old tile factory into a community art center, and teach classes along with some like-minded people in a small town in Bavaria.  The kids will attend an outstanding international school and I will revive my German language abilities and dive in to both settings and help out, writing as I go I hope.

This goes to prove once again that whatever you’re putting off because it seems like it would take too long or be too hard, just get after it.  The time will pass quickly no matter what, and you’ll either be in the same place, or you’ll have started down your dream path.

Guess what I think you should do?

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who has found that even though change is hard, the benefits outweigh the costs by far, even on those days when we wonder, “What in the world were we thinking!”