WIELENOPWEG

We all have our fantasies or beautiful dreams. So do we. We have a  dream to make a long journey and take a sabbatical leave. We want to leave all things behind and do something completely different. But how do you get from an idea to realization? And how do you make sure that all uncertainties will not undermine your beautiful dream? 

As many others, we have some certainties in our lives that we thought are irreplaceable. When we became the parents of Fenna we concluded, that there was no way that in the next 10 years we were able to do long hiking tours. Visions of ‘all inclusive resorts’ soon entered our thoughts and were almost close to reality. Others questioned us: “It this what kids enjoy most?” But we could not get enthusiastic about these sort of holidays. Also, we have employers that count on us; Fenna has a nice place in daycare that she absolutely loves and we have some savings to pay for our mortgage. And what about our two cats, we cannot leave them behind. So, enough rational reasons to forget about the journey, but once you’ve caught the pelgrim’s virus, you will never get rid of it. So it started to itch again….. 

It was in the car, on our way back from a nice little short break, that Pieter-Bas told me: “Wouldn’t it be really cool to bike all the way to Santiago the Compostela? That was the starting point of our dream. We even extended the dream with the wish to collect as much money as possible for the MS Anders foundation. And now our dream is becoming reality! We really benefit from our motto “everything is possible until proven impossible”. 

We talked a lot about our ideas, possible objections and solutions. All parts of our dream were discussed, until we fine tuned our images into a really sharp movie in which the three of us will indeed be on the road. We are truly living our dream! But still, a lot of ground to cover before we go. We have to be patient. 

During the past months we found out that with the right preparation and correct approach all objections can be turned into realization of our dream. Our employers are really supportive by giving us 4.5 months off and even sponsor our fundraiser. The owner of the daycare of Fenna helps us enormously with her guarantee to have the same weekdays of care for Fenna upon our return. We are really fanatic when it comes to saving money, since we will pay for the journey ourselves, and won’t use any sponsor money for that. All that money should come to benefit the research of dr. Chesik. And last, but not least, we found a nice stay-over place for our cats! 

With all these things arranged, nothing seems to stand in our way for completing our long bike ride with our family! Wow, you cannot imagine the great feeling that it gives to be able to be working on a dream. 

The moral of this story? If you have a dream, a dream that warms you, makes you happy and energetic, please do not wait until you have time, of when your kids will have left the house, or any other excuse. Just try to make your dream reality, you will be amazed what happens with you and your surroundings!