Today's fortune: May 12, 2011

Today's fortune: Focus on your long-term goal. Good things will soon happen.

A long time ago, a boy and a girl were married. The day after their vows, the couple drove to the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, where they shacked up in a beautiful log cabin for a week. It was one of the happiest times in their lives. The girl and the boy fell in love with those enchanted mountains, and in that place their own love took root.

The boy and the girl eventually had to go back home, to the city they loved just as much as those mountains. But the Smokies took hold of them in a way they didn’t expect.

The boy and the girl got jobs, lost those jobs, moved about a million times and finally settled down outside that big city. As their lives became more stable, they started to dream about their old age and their long-term goals.

“I want to live in the Smoky Mountains when we are old,” the girl said one night, nestled in the boy’s arm.

“Me too,” the boy said.

So they decided, that very moment, that their lifelong goal would be to retire to the Smokies. And everything they have done since then has been, in one way or another, focused on that long-term goal. The boy, who was quite silly but determined, finally landed a stable job in a widget factory and started a retirement savings plan. The girl, who was perfect in every way, studied tirelessly to become a teacher. They hoped to build a nest egg with which to purchase their mountain getaway.

They boy and the girl are still working toward their goal. And they love each other more and more every day.