Dreams

(upfront disclaimer : this is not about what you have during the night, but what you have during a lifetime.)

This morning I took some time to daydream about my dreams. I slowly walked through a beautiful park on a fall day. Then I wandered rather aimlessly, hands in my coat pockets down city streets. You see, this weekend in Germany I was part of a workshop where various people opened up and shared their life dreams. We knocked around on each others dreams for a few hours. I even had the audacity to say to at least two people that their dream was not big enough. Then the next day, my friend Nick Brotherwood sent me a youtube link of the very dreamy Judy Collins song below. I listened to it twice. It has been haunting me ever since.

What I was contemplating this morning was not the dreams that I hoped would happen, (the retreat dealt with that) but the dreams that have : an amazing woman in my life for almost 35 years, 4 gifted daughters, among others things like traveling and learning languages, and helping and inspiring people. It was about then that about I came across this note: Man, age 58, searches woman between 30-55 who has tenderness, gentleness, tolerance and likes dialogue. For a life as a couple. Telephone number.

What a reminder that for all the dreams out there, there are even more broken dreams and impossible dreams. And for that my heart is heavy. Do you sense the desperation of dreaming for such a woman on a plain yellow post-em note? It is hard to know (or maybe impossible) which dreams are impossible and which dreams just haven’t happened yet. They may take more time, more work, more connection, more patience, more grace.

What are your dreams that have come to pass? Take a walk in a park and give yourself time to think…and remember. These past childhood dreams need to be savored and celebrated. It gives us what we need to keep following the dreams that are out there before us…..somewhere.

About the time this song was written, I was a an 18 year old, enthralled with Paris for the first time, who dreamed that he could some day live in this fascinating city. As I’m living this dream, I don’t want to take it for granted, I feel I needed a few hours to be thankful for those along the way who have helped me – and there are many…that’s why it took a while.

Merci.