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blogging101, Faith and Writing, Family, Journaling, Memories & Reflections, Sunday Sundries, Uncategorized
It’s been a long time since I’ve let my mind wander on a Sunday. But I was just posting a response to alongtheinterstice on yesterday’s Saturday Sound Bites about dreams, and it brought to mind something Pastor Gary said at church today.
He was talking about living a life of faith and how it’s not about “winning,” but about “process.” There is no winning when you are trying to live out a life of love toward others, there’s only the process of trying, succeeding, failing, trying again… It truly is the process of being transformed oneself that is the lesson in it all.
How does that have anything to do with dreams? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes the “wanting” is better than the “having.” All my life I’ve wanted to travel around the UK. That’s been my “dream” vacation. Last September, after nearly two years of planning, we were scheduled to go with our best friends to England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. But in June I was suddenly diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that made it impossible for us to go. The funny thing was, as we said so long to our friends (who went ahead and made the trip), I found I wasn’t really all that upset… Strange? After all, I’d been dreaming of this since high school.
Then I saw a similar thing happen to his nibs at Christmas. For the 46 years we’ve been married Arn has talked about wanting a leather bomber jacket. But every time he’d run across one he liked, he’d never buy it. So this year for Christmas I surprised him with a beautiful brown one. He looks great in it! But the first thing he said when he put it on was, “Wow! This is heavy. AND hot!” He’s worn it twice, and it’s now hanging in the closet where I expect it will stay for who knows how long. So what I observed from him, too, was that wanting that jacket was actually better than having it.
Alongtheinterstice commented that “…in the past chasing dreams has been an emotionally exhausting affair.” Thinking of all the years I pined for that trip and Arn longed for that jacket — I get that. And ATI’s comment made me wonder if Gary’s message was relevant to dreams as well. Perhaps not ALL dreams are meant to be realized. Perhaps sometimes they’re just a process that pulls us into the future when we can’t seem to get there on our own.
What do you think? Do you believe all dreams are meant to be pursued and realized?
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Picture Sources:
Summer Sundries — Impromptu Promptlings
Dream Vacation — Pinterest
Jacket — Modèles de vestes tendance 2017
Impromptu Promptlings 
I wonder if, as you get older and dreams are not realized, sometimes you just hold onto a dream as a favor to your younger self. You know deep down it is less important to you now, but you remember how important it used to be and you honor that.
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What a beautiful way to put that, Karen. I love the idea of honoring your dreams. That’s going to stick in my head now. Thank you for that!
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I’ve always wanted to visit Iceland, Calensariel, and feel just as you describe. Once I’ve been, I’ve been – what if I’m let down and it isn’t what I expect? I may still go one day… but there’s no rush…
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You know, Tom, I didn’t realize I’d feel that way until I was actually set to go. It came as a total surprise to me. I think I would have gone looking for Brigadoon and come home heartbroken because I didn’t find it. If you ever get a chance to go to Iceland, I hope it’s all you dreamed of. 🙂
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I believe some dreams are meant to be just that …dreams. I haven’t created a vision board since Jim died, but prior to his death, I’d clear off the ‘old dreams’ and start a new dream vision board every January first…..though I know some of those dreams were/are way out of reach, just imagining them, daydreaming about them, was and is enough………..with Arn and his jacket…kinda reminds me of the “let down’ that always seemed to come over me when the craziness of the holidays came to an end…all the prep….and in a blink…over and this feeling of deflatedness hits, like is this really it?!
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That’s sure a common malady. Arn really struggles with that every time there’s some big event coming up. They never seem to live up to his expectations.
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I think sometimes the dreams change with our circumstances and maturity. Sometimes our biggest goals and desires aren’t realized for a reason we’re not supposed to understand–yet. I agree when sometimes our dreams do come true, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s all a life lesson to teach us more about ourselves and make us grow as human beings. Thank you for another thought-provoking post.
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“…when sometimes our dreams do come true, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be…” You know, I think I would have felt exactly that way about the UK trip. My expectations were SO high nothing could have met them. Better to dream of a wonderful fantasy than to be disappointed by it?
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It’s that old chestnut about it being better to travel hopefully than to arrive. I wonder about people with bucket lists. What if they get to tick off everything on the list? Then what? Ambitions are one thing, but dreams: well, perhaps they’re closer to fantasies, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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Interesting point, Julia. Now I’m going to have to think about dreams vs. bucket lists!
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I’m not sure what to think or say about dreams, wanting them, realising them, and having them perish before your eyes, maybe life is a process, your dreams all thrown into the juice processor, pureed, then poured into a Tupperware container, tagged and dated, placed in the freezer, and duly forgotten about until the fridge dies, and then the fridge has to be cleaned out, and your Tupperware container of pureed dreams has to be thrown into rubbish bin, eventually taken to the tip and covered in dirt…..
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Well now THERE’S a picture! Something else for me to ponder! How interesting!
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Oh Calen, don’t take me too seriously, just Ivor and his jumbled thoughts, and the word process was the prompt for my little charade of words, but I suppose that was my at the moment thinking if you can understand what I was trying to say. 😊
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LOL! Ivor! Now I’ve spent the whole afternoon wondering what I have stored in my freezer! 😀
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No. Some dreams are not for realising.
Having too much of something cheapens it.
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You’re 100% right. I loved your post about this, Opher. It felt like a pair of comfortable old shoes… Really took me back.
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Nuh – it’s nice to dream though! Like scooting around space in a flying machine 🙂
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But you have to be careful you don’t fall out and get disenchanted!
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LoL!!
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