The Stuff of My Dreams

It's a warm sunny spring afternoon, and the breeze is blowing in through the open window, making the gossamer curtain move ever so softly. The sunlight doesn't come in the window yet, but will as the season deepens. By Summer, late afternoon will be a perfect time for a bubble bath, a glass of wine, and the song of birds outside for music.

This gorgeous quaking aspen tree is right outside the window, casting moving shadows in the fading afternoon light. Birds fill its branches all day long, warbling and singing and tweeting.

Across the pasture, a fruit tree springs into bloom in the sunshine. When the wind is right, the scent fills our house.

On the back deck, overlooking another pasture, the daffodils still bloom and nod in the breeze.

Overhead, puffy white clouds float in blue skies, and sparrows dive, hawks soar, and bald eagles spin lazy circles in the air.

Every single day of my life, I am awed and amazed by the beauty that surrounds me. To live in this place, to feel every moment this overwhelming sense of gratitude for the blessings and abundance that God has provided, is more than I ever thought I would experience in my life...

You see, I was taught not to 'get my hopes up'. I was taught that life would let me down, that people would disappoint me, and that keeping my feet on the ground rather than my head in the clouds was the smart way to live. Don't aim too high, don't go out on that limb, don't ask for too much. The underlying message was '...because you'll never get it'. So I tried, I really tried, NOT to dream of life the way I wanted it to be instead of the way it was.

It took me until I was forty six years old to realize that all of that advice, though meant to protect me from disappointments, was wrong. God has so much more in store for us than we can ever even imagine. And those dreams we dare to dream come from the desires that have been placed in our hearts and minds by the Divine. We are here to LIVE, to dream, to explore, to experience, to risk, to try....

Someone once said 'We are spiritual beings experiencing life in a human body'. While I can't remember who it was who said that, I find it to be very true about myself as I experience these moments of divine presence in the world I inhabit now. I stand within the reality of the dream He gave me as a child, that I hid for years and finally allowed myself to imagine, and I am utterly humbled by the thought that I ever doubted that life could be like this. It's not perfect, it's not easy, but oh my friends, after experiencing some very dark shadows and long painful nights on this journey, I consider myself blessed beyond all understanding to stand at last in the sunshine and His presence.

Wherever you are, whatever you are experiencing right now, please don't give up. Please GET your hopes up, for Hope is the twin of Faith - and together, they will see you through the darkness. Soon, very soon, your sun will rise on a glorious day. And you will be amazed by how bright that light is...