Dreams and hopes and plans. They are important. They offer adventure and hope and life.
Life without the looking forward or the what-ifs or the reaching-for-the-stars becomes flat-lined and dull and dreary. A dismal thing to trudge through completing tasks, but missing the miracles woven in the moments.
The clean, tidy kitchen with each dish snugged securely in its spot and the countertops cleaned, wiped free of crumbs and cleared of clutter and the floor swept and standing at attention for a few brief moments wouldn’t offer the same satisfaction if it were an easy thing instead of an elusive thing.
Dreams are big and beautiful and small and silent. Dreams make memories and magic. Dreams soar. Dreams take hard work and effort. Dreams fill our spirits. Dreams come true and dreams fizzle out. Dreams can feel fragile and frightening.
Sometimes people stamp on our dreams and shatter them like so much broken glass. Sometimes in such a way that it feels like we’re left standing there, helpless, hurting, pulling out the splinters and shards that exploded everywhere.
Some days we get to LTD.
Livin’ the Dream, man, Livin’ the Dream. Some days, not so much, and it doesn’t feel like we thought the dream we had in mind would.
My children like to tell me all the details of the dreams they dream during the night in their sleep. Always something askew it seems. No matter how real-to-life or seeminly real, the dreams-in-our-sleep are, there is always something in it that doesn’t fit and doesn’t make sense.
Life and hopes and dreams can feel that way, too. We can’t see the end until we get there. Sometimes it feels like we took the wrong turn or picked the wrong direction at the fork in the road. Sometimes I’m sure I missed the memo. It makes me think of the song by Casting Crowns, Let Me Dream For You. I love it. I love the picture of David and then of Mary and of their dreams and how God says, “Your dream is good, my dream is so much better.”
This is the chorus:
So come on, let Me dream, let Me dream for you
I am strong when you’re weak and I’ll carry you
So let go of your plan, be caught by My hand
I’ll show you what I can do
When I dream for you
I have a dream for you
Let’s keep dreaming.
Even if we’ve been robbed of dreams or ridiculed or made to feel shamed. Dreams are sunshine and stars shining. Dreams are waves crashing and gulls soaring. Dreams are golden heads of wheat, heavy, bent and curled, ripened on the stalk. Dreams are crisp, white kitchen curtains. Dreams are digging toes deep into freshly worked soil and breathing in the scent. Dreams are bright sparkly eyes and cuddly, snuggly bodies curled warm against mama when they wake. Dreams are six-month-old nieces with the chubbiest, kissiest cheeks ever. Dreams are airplanes with working propellers sprung to life from an old, erector set. Dreams are swimming pools and sprinklers. Dreams are having a buddy in a bouncy Beagle puppy. Dreams are laughing till your stomach hurts. Dreams are good books and cold lemonade gleaming in the sunshine with ice cubes sparkling. Dreams are porches and flowerpots. Dreams are hugs. Dreams are kites soaring and waterfalls roaring. Dreams make music and art and words and inspiration. Dreams are brown paper packages tied up with string. Dreams are white wedding gowns and the look in the groom’s eye as he watches his bride walk up the aisle. Dreams are hand-crafted pillows and hammocks. Dreams are daisies and daffodils, hydrangeas and peonies. Dreams are a handful of glitter and a flickering candle. Dreams are happy mail in the mailbox. Dreams are soft blankets and favorite foods. Dreams are the look on a little girl’s face when she opens a new doll and softly exclaims. Dreams are a gift.
One of my best dreams?! I just told my man this the other day.
A good man and a fun marriage.
That may be the dream for a lot of young girls. It was one of my dreams and I get to live in it every day and I am thankful for it. Not perfect. Not even near as perfect as we’d like sometimes because we are imperfect people, but we have a Savior that keeps shaping and molding us and our marriage. And, man, has it been a great dream!
{Dreams take longer than five minutes to write about! 😉 } Linking up at Kate’s...
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Yes! I’m so glad you took longer than five minutes to write about dreams – that last paragraph – WOW! What a wonderful read! I’m a big fan of hugs and now I have to try the handful of glitter and a candle… Thank you!
Oh, thank-you!! Dreams are a gift, aren’t they?!
(Stopping by from FMF)
I have that same dream about my kitchen. 😀 & I love this song. I know I’ve heard it before, but not recently.
This post is such a great reminder that God’s dreams are so much better for us. I’m learning that every day right now and it is just an amazing thing to see. 🙂
God’s dreams are good. I believe Mary and David had questions at times and the roads they walked weren’t always easy or perfect.
I believe we need to dream in life. It refreshes our souls. I want to dream and yet, be open to the direction of the dream God has for me.
I was thinking there was no way you could’ve written all that in five minutes! Great post and I share your kitchen dream. Now I’m off to listen to that song! 🙂
🙂 Five minutes multiplied! I so love that song!
I was born in 1975. Too often we were made to feel ashamed to have a dream of marriage and children. Career was the automatic assumption, and the conveyer belt carried on. I am proud to have jumped off it and to be a SAHM.
Nice to hear we shared the dreams of a good man and a fun marriage. Like you I consider myself very fortunate.
Found you on the Modest Mom blog hop – wanted to say hello from England!
So glad you stopped in! Another of my dreams would be to visit England. It has always fascinated me. I always loved reading about Princess Di and I appreciate Kate’s classic style and like seeing pics of their babies.
I also always loved books with old English manors and the lovely library rooms in them! The pictures always look pretty and their is just a charming loveliness about the old cottages and structures. 🙂
YES!! I love that I am blessed with a good man and my kiddos. We have much to be thankful for.