Practical Dreamers
Practical Dreamer’s Handbook
Sarah & Paul Edwards 

Linda & Ed Miller
Believing: Stand in Your Dream and See It as Real 
Lesson: “I was convinced I could do it.” 

           From the time she discovered her true calling, massage therapy, Linda Miller dreamed of opening a day spa. First she worked in a resort; later in a chiropractic office, but all the while she believed that someday she would open her own spa. When Linda moved to Pine Mountain to marry her husband Ed she knew the time had come. Her mountain day spa retreat would be a place where people could heal both body and soul. “But,” we asked her, “why did you think you would be able to open a day spa in such a small, remote community?”  “Actually,” she told us, “everyone said it would never work, but I knew I could do it.” 

 First, from her knowledge of the field she knew that body work was a major trend and was expected to grow in popularity for years to come. Also, she knew people in the nearby urban areas of Los Angeles and Bakersfield were stressed out and eager to get away to relax.  “And,” she said, “I knew I could do it. I had experience over many years. I knew how spas operated. I’d done marketing for the chiropractic clinic, so I knew how to get business. I knew what I needed to charge, how much people would pay and how much it would cost to operate as a business.”  

Linda sold most of her expensive belongings, kept her full-time job at the clinic which was an hour’s drive away, and worked weekends to build her spa. A year later, when the business had grown to a level she could count on, she quit her job. She now works four days a week in her spa and has had as many as 18 people on a waiting list for a given day.           

Year’s before, Linda’s husband Ed had been living in Los Angeles, operating his own business as a construction contractor. His work involved going into large apartment buildings to do repairs for management companies and  “Sometimes,” he recalls, “ I had to carry a concealed weapon in my pocket to protect myself.” One day he was confronted by a ten-year-old boy who tried to rob and kill him. “I decided right then and there that the confrontation with this little kid wasn’t worth my lifestyle and I decided to give it all up and get out of the city.” He quit a very lucrative business and moved to the mountains.

            “The mountains always had a magic appeal to me,” Ed told us. “So, finally I said there’s got to be a better way. I left with my truck, tools and one month’s rent.” He had no plan but just started “beating the woods” as hard as he could for business to see if he could make a living.  “At first I was just doing piddling jobs for grocery money,” he admits, “but I figured I could starve a little to make it happen.” Aiming to do the best quality work he could, three years later he has a backlog of work. and says, “I’m too busy now to even think about any more business.”

            Best of all, he says, “When I quit working at the end of the day I don’t have to take any of it home in my head anymore. I can just go home and stand out on the deck and look at the beautiful trees and animals all around and I can breath again.”

              Each in their own way, Ed and Linda convinced themselves they could do what they yearned to do. They did this based on their own particular combination of facts and figures, past experience, trend tracking, intuition, the inspiration of others, and pure faith. They both came to the point when they could stand in their dream, look over into reality and see that what they wanted was possible.

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