Dreams

Do you ever dream? If you could fashion your ideal life, what would it look like? Where would you live? What would fill your time?

I dream.

I dream a lot.

But I never share my dreams because I am too afraid. Mostly, I am afraid that I will fail. I am afraid that I will get sidetracked, or that I won’t be as good at something as I had hoped, or that people won’t like me as much as I hope. Lately, there have been quite a few posts in my blogisphere about dreams, like this one, or this one. I read them, biting my lip as if to say, “Well, that’s nice….for you.”
I feel as if so much of my life is out of my control: I have a husband whose career is, hopefully, the one that will put bread on the table and may take him anywhere around the world. I have children, one of whom, benefits exponentially from appropriate support and resources and I have limited funds and the attention span of a dog in a rabbit park.

Part of me wonders, though, if it doesn’t matter? Maybe, I just need to have the dreams, not be afraid to share them and see what happens? Truth be told, I have trouble even drawing up a simple bucket list…just in case I can’t put a check mark beside something when I face the Almighty.

But it doesn’t matter right? It’s not about failing or about succeeding. It is about dreaming, trying new things, believing that anything is possible. When I was ten years old, I remember thinking that Africa was SOOOOOO far away and that I would NEVER go there. It was impossible. The following year I went on a Missions Trip to Belize and the year after that: TO AFRICA!

So here they are…a few of my dreams, in no particular order:

Complete a Master’s Degree in History.

Walk through a field of lavender

Speak publicly for the encouragement and benefit of others.

Adopt a child with special needs.

Raise my kids near the ocean.

Open up a little coffee shop/tea house in the old Boundary Bay Store. Just up the street from where I grew up there is a quaint little shop that needs some love. I long to fill it with a collection of china, great coffee and tea, soups, sandwiches and other simple food, and in the summer, ICE CREAM. Home to the Bay Book club on Wednesday mornings, Agnes’s knitting club on Tuesdays and impromptu mommy coffee breaks. And once a month, I would host a Secret Dinner Party…except it wouldn’t be so secret. It would be a place where my kids could learn the work ethic that I learned as I washed dish after dish after dish in my father’s kitchen and where Ella would become a confident, independent woman.

This is Blue Willow China patter, the same as the plates I ate off of for years while I lived with my grandparents. I saw it in a thrift store the other day and had to buy it…England is a great place to start a china collection.

And finally, document and photograph this One Beautiful Life breathing inspiration and encouragement into the lives of millions.

Oh, and save the world.

Okay, your turn….what’s your dream?