Be careful who you dream with.
Gary Molander quoted by Luke McElroy
They might steal your dreams, squash them or support them, so choose who you dream with carefully.
dreams
Dreaming Dreams
The other night I got together with a friend. She recently relocated and is spending some time trying to figure out what’s next in life. There’s so many directions her life could go and it’s exciting. It’s also a mix of crazy and sometimes scary that there are so many possibilities, but it was great to hear she’s taking the time to sort it out.
Sometimes we’re encouraged to consider our dreams. To seek them out, to pursue them. I think it’s important to acknowledge and write them down and assess what you’re dreaming about. What’s also important though is to hear the dreams of the people around you. What are your co-workers aiming for? Where do your neighbors see themselves in five years? And what do your friends wish and hope and pray for?
I think knowing someone’s dreams and hopes and goals allows you to connect with them in entirely new ways. You begin to understand more of what makes them tick, why certain things can come as an excitement or disappointment. There’s hopes I know some of my friends have, but I don’t think I sit back often enough and just ask the question of what are you dreaming about?
Earth Shattering
As I lay on the couch surrounded by tissues and cold remedies, watching yet another documentary on Netflix, I am guessing you are not jealous at all of my “adventures.” Oh yeah, let’s also remember to add the fact that I am currently searching for a job. Living the life.
Okay, so maybe my life isn’t awe-inspiring today. Despite a move without security, some bold decisions and my proximity to the mountains, here I am, struggling to breathe out of my nose. Impressive, huh? Maybe paying the bills and doing dishes is inevitable. So succumb to the mediocrity? No. But don’t be inhibited by it either.
I think sometimes we can let passion and excitement get away from us. We start dreaming of greatness and impact. The vision can seem so clear in our minds. It’s awesome, too. We need that vision, that drive, that passion. But when life throws something more mundane our way, we can get completely thrown off track. For some, that means not ever dealing with the chores and responsibilities of life in order to keep on towards the dream. For others, it amounts to being bogged down so much by the monotony that we lose sight of the dream. Both are terrible pitfalls.
We have to fight through both to achieve anything. And the word is fight. It can’t happen without insane effort and perseverance. I’m also of the belief that it can’t all happen at once and it can’t all happen (more on that later). There’s going to be lulls and there will be peaks. But I truly think that consistency makes all the difference. The continual push, the major and minor decisions. Keep pressing forward.
Dreams from the Past
Going through old emails yesterday, I ran across one written to a friend a little over two years ago telling her my hopes and dreams. At the time I think I wrote it mostly on a whim about the things that first came to mind. When I realized then how accurate it was, I forwarded it to the hubby and apparently sent it to myself as a reminder. Now, many of those still ring true. I can’t say that we’ll do all of these things, but it seems to fall in line with what I mentioned as heart stirs a few months ago. It reminds me how important it is to dream and inspires me to keep striving for these.
Live in another country for a year, visit South America, move out of the Midwest, be a good mom (LATER), be a great wife, visit the gum wall… among traveling the country and hitting up a few other places (list of places to visit/revisit in the next five years: Seattle, Boston, D.C.,… that’s all I can think of right now), run a successful freelance studio, play a show at a coffee shop (playing my songs), see the hubby finally pull his own band together, be foster parents, work at a non-profit I believe in and give God my whole heart.
(p.s. We leave for D.C. today…didn’t even realize I had put it on the list a few years ago)
Quote: Unthought knowns
Unthought knowns are those things we know about ourselves but forget somehow. These are the dreams we have lost sight of or the truths we sense but don’t say out loud. We may be afraid of acknowledging the unthought known to other people because we are afraid of what they might think. Even more often, we fear what the unthought known will then mean for ourselves and our lives.
The Defining Decade by Meg Jay