A Day in the Life

posted 16th June 2010    Written by: Heather Rae    CATEGORY: All Posts, Heather Rae, Inspiration, Season 2

A few months ago, I completed The Joy Equation course.  One of my favorite exercises for discovering my big dreams was to write down a perfect day in my life at some point in the future.  Every so often, I like to go back and read through that perfect day.  It’s an inviting reminder of what my journey is all about, of where I want my life to take me. Not that I expect it all to go the way I plan, but it’s nice to have something to aim for.

Today, I think I’ll share that perfect day with you.

I decided to write my perfect day for when I’m forty, in the year 2018.  Here goes:

Writing, teaching, dancing, reading, husband, baby, house, art, decorating, classes, travel, friends.  That one run-on sentence pretty much sums up my perfect life at forty.

(Keep in mind, this is about to be one jam-packed day.  Fitting everything neatly into one day is somewhat impossible in reality.  I’m sure most days wouldn’t look like what’s about to follow, but for the sake of my fantasy — well, I’m simply putting it all out there.)

The morning starts early, around 6 a.m.  Steven headed out a few minutes ago to check on a patient at the hospital.  I check on our daughter.  She’s four years old.  I can’t believe I have a four year old.

She’s still sleeping, so I quietly walk into the kitchen and make breakfast.  I sit down with my book of the moment and start reading while I eat.

A half hour passes without me even stopping to look at the clock.  Little feet tap the floor, moving down the hallway.  My daughter is awake and looking for something to entertain her.  I give her a hug and ask if she’s hungry.  She is, as usual, so I make her a quick breakfast and then work on getting us both ready for the day.

After my daughter is dressed and she’s occupied with her toys, I work on myself.  Our neighbor is driving the kids to pre-school this week.  I look out the window and see the car out front.  We grab her things and walk outside together.  I chat with the neighbor for a few minutes, then buckle my daughter in the car seat.

Back inside, I walk to my office.  It’s not your usual office.  For one thing, it doesn’t have a desk.  As a writer, some people might find this odd, but I prefer to work at the chase with my laptop.  I’m working on two projects at the moment.  One is a travel memoir.  I’m writing about the last summer I spent with Steven and our daughter traveling through Central America.  A New York publishing company already bought the book, and I’m working against a deadline.  Today, I’m putting the finishing touches on my final revision before sending it to my agent for review.

The other writing project I’m working on is a novel.  It’s the third book in a young adult series.  Books one and two sold incredibly well, and we just signed a deal with a production company for the movie rights of the first book.  I’m still in shock that my book will be made into a movie.

After writing for a few hours, I can’t take sitting much longer.  I look at the clock and it’s almost time to head to the studio.  I take dance classes at a small studio a few days a week.  Dancing has been the perfect way to blow off steam while I’m in the middle of writing.  It keeps my mind fresh, and I’m always ready to return to the page after a good class.

I change for class and head out.  Class is filled with student’s I’ve danced with for about a year now.  I love this particular class because the women all get along so well.  We often go to lunch after class just to hang out.  Today, we’re getting ready for a performance, so the energy in the room is even more than usual.

I have a lunch date with an old friend and won’t be able to stick around for lunch with the girl’s from class today.  We meet at a favorite restaurant and talk for what seems like hours.  I look at my watch and see that it’s time to get my daughter from school, so we head out.

I pick up my daughter from pre-school and say hello to the teacher.  My daughter made me a necklace out of macaroni and asks me to put it on.  I tell her it’s beautiful and dutifully wrap it around my neck.

Once we get home, my daughter asks if she can paint.  Sounds good to me, so I get out some supplies and we both work on our ‘art’ projects.  I’ve been painting for several years now.  I’m excited that I’ve continued to get better and take classes and workshops whenever the opportunity arises.  I’ve actually started selling my paintings — more because I don’t have any place to put them than anything else.  I wouldn’t call myself a professional or anything.  But every once in a while I paint something that even surprises me.

Steven calls while we’re painting and says he’ll be home at about seven o’clock.  He asks if he should bring anything for dinner.  I’ve cooked every other day that week, so I say yes.  I call for take-out at the new vegetarian place near our house, and Steven agrees to pick it up on his way home.

Our daughter starts work on a new finger painting, so I go to my office and get some papers to review while she paints.  I’m an adjunct professor at the city college near our house.  Twice a week, I teach a class on culture and health.  The semester is almost over.  My students turned in their term papers a few days ago, and I still need to read through most of them and assign grades.

After reading through a few papers and making some notes for class tomorrow, I set aside that project and start leafing through the latest college catalog.  It’s almost time to register for Fall classes.  I want to be sure to take another French class next semester.  At this point, I’m pretty fluent.  But I like to continuously improve my skills.  Also, I happen to love reading college catalogues.  It’s sort of a hobby in itself.  Once, I took a class on Middle Eastern History just for fun.  I do that sometimes.  If my schedule doesn’t look particularly full, I’ll take random classes for no reason at all.

My daughter and I are reading together when I hear the garage door open.  Steven is home with dinner.  She jumps off my lap to greet her daddy.  We eat dinner together in the dining room, using all the good china, as usual.  I hate to save that stuff for special occasions.  Every day is a special occasion.

After dinner, Steven spends time playing with our daughter.  Then he reads to her.  They have a ritual of reading together every night before she goes to bed.  If he’s at the hospital, she’ll try to wait all night for him to come home before she’ll give in and go to sleep.  Luckily, it’s rare that he’s not home at night.  Some nights he comes home just for dinner and bedtime, then heads back to the hospital.  It’s really important to both of them to have their time together.

After the tucking in and kissing goodnight, Steven and I relax together for a couple of hours — we talk for a while, watch a movie and make love.

We have a good life.  That’s what I’m thinking as I drift to sleep.

photo credit: yogendra174

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Comments (8)

8 Responses to “A Day in the Life”

  • suki Says:
    June 16th, 2010 at 9:21 am

    This is the part of the equation I'm stuck at… :) I just can't think that far in advance… But I'm trying.

  • Katie [blogs] Says:
    June 16th, 2010 at 7:24 pm

    I don't know if it's my recent emotional "in touchness" I've beeen experiencing, or how awesome this post was, but I shed a tear or 3. So awesome, so perfect. Love it!

    I can't wait until I'm lining up outside the theater to see your book-to-movie. I'll probably e-mail you and ask for super-guest passes. Just saying. :)

  • Heather Rae Says:
    June 17th, 2010 at 2:57 am

    Awww. Thanks, Katie! You are so sweet. And for that…you will so get super guest passes. :)

  • jpitsch Says:
    June 16th, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    i dont know you, and ive linked to your blog through my friend erannorton, but this is such a well-balanced, kind, loving, satisfying vision of life. all my love and strength to you in this moment to ensure you get here. what bliss!

  • Heather Rae Says:
    June 18th, 2010 at 2:18 am

    Thank you so much! That really means a lot. :)

  • Heather Rae Says:
    June 18th, 2010 at 2:20 am

    You will definitely get there. :) Besides, that's not such a bad thing – maybe you're exceptionally good at living in the present moment (not my best quality. lol.)

  • A Perfect Day in 5 Years » The Winged Heart Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    [...] of the bloggers (Katie and Heather Rae) at Stratejoy recently did posts about their idea of their perfect life, or a perfect day in their [...]

  • Lizzie Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 12:07 am

    It sounds like a beautiful day…I have no doubt that in ten years time you'll be right there! :) x

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