23 August 2021: Brave or foolish?

campervan driving along road towards mountain

It is Monday and we are about to take a calculated risk. We are about to meet up with Jacques, our project manager, in Fundao to purchase all the necessary metalworks for phase one. This is not a little purchase. This is a shelter that measures 12 metres by 6 metres. Its big and it will need to be. From this point on, we’ll call it ‘Mission Control’.

Of course, the wise readers of this blog know that the purchase of the land hasn’t actually gone through yet.  There is always a risk that for some reason it might not go through and then where will we be?  A whole lot lighter in the pocket.

campervan driving along road towards mountain
The road leading to Monsanto mountain and our home-to-be!

Now conventional wisdom might call us any of the following – stupid, naïve, mug, idiot etc.  You get the gist. We are not playing that game; it is not a game we subscribe to. Let us look at this baby step in a different way. Can we cancel the order? Yes. We can, but we will not need to. Regardless of what happens during the “how” of buying this land, we will need a shelter built somewhere. We know we want to get Jacques to build it. We know we can go with him today and buy all the steel at his trade price which is a big discount and means we lock in the price today as costs are fluctuating up a fair amount currently for these sorts of materials. They will then be delivered after we’ve left Portugal for this first trip.

This means that Mission Control will be built whilst we are in the UK and be ready for when we return for a second trip in November. There is no risk, just opportunity. Whatever happens, we know it will work out right. We know that often we will not see the perfection, until looking backwards through time – and sometimes not even then – but we truly know that however it turns out, it will be perfect. It always is.

stone barn
This is the old barn we hope to turn into our dream home

I guess if you had to ask me what my beliefs are, then I would sum them up like this:  Thoughts become things, and if you focus your thoughts on the end goal, then it naturally follows that it will all turn out perfectly in the end, whatever twists and turns the journey to get there takes you on. With the proviso that your contribution is, you must take some baby steps yourself and you must let go of worrying about how you’re going to achieve the end result.

The goal is being supremely happy in our dream home. We are going to continue to take baby steps towards it, knowing it will turn out perfectly. I also want to take the time to investigate the traditional way of thinking. Traditional thinking would say, ‘Hold on. Get the land, then get three quotes for the first piece of work before you make a commitment to do it.’ Then do what? Choose the cheapest? Choose the one you think is right? Choose the most expensive? If you have found someone good, then you know. You feel it. Aren’t you going to use this person regardless? Wouldn’t you want the work to continue whilst you couldn’t be there? Why wait another few months, until you can get back to Portugal, for something you are going to do anyway.

barn with lots of spanish broom growing outside it
The back of our ‘dream home’ – there’s some work to be done!

Having weighed up all our options, we believe we are taking the right option for us. Yes, it involves a number of things. Faith. Trust. Belief. Truly it comes down to what we’ve learned from the work and interpretation of life in spiritual terms (not aligned to any particular religion) as explained by Mike Dooley and his Thoughts from the Universe known as TUT.com. We started off just getting his daily ‘Note from the Universe’ and this changed our lives completely. All we’d been brought up to know about life and our experiences fell into place. We have not looked back since.

fruit trees for sale at market
Fruit trees on sale at the market in Fundao

On with the story. Steel all safely bought, we say goodbye to Jacques and head off to Fundao market. It is on every Monday, and it is one of the biggest in the area. It is big with sections for animals, for food, for trees, for clothes. We found the tree section particularly interesting, as growing things like oranges, lemons, limes and avocadoes is going to be a central part of life on CasaBo.

A quick coffee follows then we pop to Continente to pick up the stuff for supper. Can’t get enough of our home-made tuna salad.

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