When I was a young teenager my parents lived on a double block of land. Their dream was to build their ideal home on the spare block.

Together they planned the floor plan of the house and what materials the house would be built of. They worked out the colour scheme and what furniture would go in each room.

They would stand together in the garden discussing details about the house. They found great pleasure in doing this.

I would ask Mum and Dad when they were going to build the house, their response was always “one day soon.”

Time passed and the dream house remained just that. I could not understand why they never seemed to be in a hurry to build the house.

Often when my parents went shopping, mum would say to Dad “Look, Harry, wouldn’t that be nice in the new house?”  Dad would look at the item and agree with Mum and they would discuss where they would put it.

Time went on and the house was not built. Sadly Mum passed away in her early forties.  When Mum died Dad never mentioned the house again. Dad died two years later also in his early forties.

Many years later I did a course called ‘Alpha’, which taught us to relax and to visualise things that we wanted in our lives. This made me think back to Mum and Dad’s dream house, which I called their ‘Alpha House’. It was a special place that they shared, that gave them both a lot of joy, even though it was only a dream.

I was a more practical type of person and I couldn’t understand why my parents never started to build the house. It wasn’t because of finance, and I guess I will never know the answer to that. But I now realise that many people have dreams that they hold on to, that will never come to fruition.

My siblings and I were very lucky to have wonderful parents that loved us and loved each other.

The one thing I learned from them was to have dreams and to plan ahead to better things. I also learned to set my plans into time frames, which keeps me accountable to myself.

Maybe if Mum and Dad had lived longer their dream home would have become a reality.

Time is something we should never take for granted.

The Alpha House is always there in the back of my mind, to remind me that life goes on and to get the most out of life we need to work at living the type of life we want for ourselves and our families.

Although the Alpha House didn’t exist in reality, it existed in my parent’s mind and hearts. It gave them a lot of happiness imagining and planning their home together. In their mind, they lived in their dream home.

Never be afraid to dream and visualise your dreams, then take the next step to plan and put a time factor to the dream.

Make your dream a reality.

– Nancy