2.12 Dream - A Grand Estate

Bestest Friend and I are in the middle of a blog project. Each day of the month we will post a picture on a pre-determined theme and write a little something about it. The theme for the twelfth day of each month is "Dream."
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Before the awkward family party, before my cousin and I stood around a fire pit in a thunderstorm while the rest of the family huddled under and umbrella, before a different cousin began haranguing her mother about whatever it is that spoiled teenage girls complain about, before all of this, my mother and I spent the morning at the Dow Gardens in Midland, Michigan.

The Gardens are lovely and well worth the five dollars we each paid in admission. We wandered through the rose garden, the rock garden, the children's area, and the conservatory, and could easily have spent another couple of hours wandering the grounds.

For the rest of the day, when the stories about my father cut too close or my cousin took one more stab at the grey in my hair or someone snubbed my mother or my uncle suggested something unpleasant about the family history, just whenever this happened - I would close my eyes. I would imagine myself lost in a sea of blooming flowers on a grand estate with the sound of a trickling pond in the background. I would dream of a better place, a better time, and a family without all the stress and one-upmanship.  And then I would breathe deeply and answer civilly before walking away.

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To see what Bestest Friend wrote about the theme of the day, check out her blog, Too Legit to Quit.