Sometimes You Just Have to Dream

Winter is doing its best to push aside warmer weather.  Although the sun is shining today, I've heard there's a chance of snow later this week.  Not my idea of perfection.  But it does offer a reason to dream.

When I say "dream," I'm not referring to that thing we do when we sleep.  The kind of dream we need to be doing to open our heart and soul to possibilities is done when we're wide awake.  I remember spending time with an old crush on a night filled with snow and ice and cold.  We were trying to think of ways to stay warm--beyond the obvious ☺--and we came up with  thinking about summer things.  Things like a warming sun and the feel of a sidewalk under our bare feet on a summer day.  I thought of an ice cream cone, and the spell was broken.

Dreaming is what gives writers ideas and characters and stories.  It gives painters colors and visions and brushstrokes.  For composers it's rhythm and tone and music.  But one doesn't need to be a writer or painter or composer, or even a dancer or actor or anything involved in being creative and artistic.  Each one of us can gain by letting ourselves dream.

So what if what we dream might not be possible to actually attain?  Anything is possible, if we begin by dreaming.  If we shut ourselves off from possibilities beyond what we believe to be attainable, how can we ever grow and change?  Without those who dreamed of going to the moon, our space program never would have happened.  Without those who dreamed of everyone being able to read and write, how many of us would be reading books and newspaper, and writing?

We're in that tension-building time of the run-up to Christmas.  Thanksgiving is behind us, and we're focused intently on the next holiday.  That tension can quickly morph into stress, and that's something we really don't need.  Not now.  Not at any time.  Just for the next few weeks, lets give ourselves a chance to unwind, relax, and dream, if only for a short time.  Instead of checking Done times off of our mental To Do lists, use part of that time to dream.  And before you know it, you'll be more relaxed and have a smile on your face.  And who knows?  Maybe your wish--or something close to it--will come true.

A dream is a wish your heart makes.

    Walt Disney, Sleeping Beauty