Today, I will let you in on something near and dear to my heart. A thing that is as sweet as a bouquet of red roses. And as painful as squeezing a fistful of thorns. Of course, I am referring to nothing other than dreams!

We all dream of something! Some crave a decadent dark-chocolate dessert while sipping a virgin Pina Colada at dusk in St. Tropez. Others dream of racing a Ferrari F2004 in Monaco. And another sets their sights on looking young forever! Unsurprisingly, of all these dreams, the one I find most desirable involves chocolate 😉.

What do you desire?

I find this question incredibly refreshing because desire opens the door to dreaming. And when we stop dreaming, we stop truly living. Yet, the pull to make our dreams smaller can feel insurmountable because an unrealized dream can feel like a failure. And to avert the sting of perceived failure, we may pretend we never had the dream. Or we might say we had a dream and someone stole it! But how could something that exists in an ethereal realm be stolen?

Certainly, others can place stumbling blocks on the path to realizing our dreams. But can someone rob another of the capacity to journey in their minds? Because that is what we do when we dream.
To bring this closer to home, I will share a dream I hold dear.

My dream

Since I was a teenager, I have desired a daughter. Perhaps this is a nod to my mother, because having her as a mom is the realization of a great dream I never dreamt. It is a gift.

Over the years, I have nurtured my dream of raising and loving my little girl so earnestly that I know her name and have seen her in several night dreams! In each one, she displayed the most vibrant personality – effervescent and ingenious. Through her, I caught a glimpse of what her dad would be like. These dreams were another gift that I cherish.

What do we do with unrealized worthy dreams?

Candidly, I have sometimes wondered whether my life would be easier if I let go of the dream. It might spare me disappointment, especially since I have limited control over making it come true. – Herein lies the difference between a worthy dream and an ordinary one. Worthy dreams are born and grow in the realm of imagination. They are not easy to get, but they are worth the effort and wait because they are tied to who we are. Also, as they live beyond our wildest imagination, we do not have complete control over bringing them to life.

Certainly, many worthy dreams may not be realized. But it is not a reason to stop dreaming. Knowing that we will wait, yet not knowing how long we shall, is a reason to learn to wait well.
So here is what I do: I do not abandon my unrealized dreams. I keep them in the safest place I know – in the hands of God. And I go on living – growing, learning, and sharing.

Friend, the worthwhile question is not whether we should dream earnestly. It is what we must do to live well when we have a worthy dream, have worked for it, and are waiting to realize it.

For you and to you,
Aké

P.S. My accompaniment for this piece is the evocative ballad by Whitney Houston, Where Do Broken Hearts Go?

Image credit: Pexels | Kobe