The Keep at Cattingham

I have "Cattingham Palace" in my living room today. My son, Zephryn is home until Monday due to a change in schools (I'll sit down and write about it when I calm down a bit...lets just say retribution and abuse on the schools behalf are the major motivators in the move) and he decided to build the cats a palace of their own with sliding doors and secret passages. I get updated on the keeps situation every few minutes "They're all enjoying the feast now, Mom" "Oh! they've all gone to their rooms and are going to sleep...look..you can look down from the crack in the top..see? they're all sleeping!". "Humphrey isn't here yet...Sir Humphrey! come visit Cattingham Palace!". I love hearing and seeing this kind of creativity.

Yesterday we were talking about what he was going to do when he grew up...he said "First thing I'm going to do is move to Las Vegas" I said "Las Vegas?? Why??" and he said "well I need to make a lot of money so I can build my Castle...I want to build a Castle with a village inside and I can be the Lord of the keep and I'll make all the rules". I had to explain that gambling isn't the best way to make money..hard work and ambition are and that even if he built a medieval castle, there were still rules that HE had to follow in the town/state/country he lived in. But in the long run I hope he holds onto that dream..and I hope he does build his own castle and I hope he gets a real sense of accomplishment out of it..because in the end there is no other feeling like fulfilling a lifelong dream.

So many of us lose our dreams along the way, either we're told we cant do that, or we are told its silly or we just forget because life gets busy. I don't want my kids to forget what its like to dream, what its like to use their brains in a way that isn't necessarily main steam. I want them to be people outside of the cookie cutter images that society tries to fit us all into. So days like this, when I have a Cat palace in my living room, or a dirt nascar track in my driveway, or if I'm filling up back packs for a cross country adventure...i treasure...and encourage. No dream is silly or unreachable...they are all special and worth the path that has to be followed to get there.