Living "the Dream"

Watching the sun set from a picnic blanket, faint music floating on the summer night's breeze, us girls laughed and told stories and ate goat cheese with honey.  We were celebrating the birthday of one of my dearest friends.

As we looked at the sky we remembered the year behind us, and dared to dream for the year ahead. 

Two of my girl friends are single and had gone to London and Paris together.  They told hilarious and charming stories of adventures abroad and quaint cafes tucked into hidden alleys. 

I always assumed I'd be a lot more adventurous when it came to exploring with our kiddos, but mothering two toddlers makes travelling difficult.  I know this season isn't forever.  They'll get older, drop naps, walk further, and be able to use an inside voice one of these days.  My soul still lets out a little sigh from time to time, knowing that so many of the things I want to experience in life will need to wait another year or two.

One of the single girls generously redirected conversation from her phenomenal trip over toward me, "Do you have a picture of your kids?" she asked.

I pulled out my phone.  The first picture on hand was of them goofing off in an aisle of the Dollar Store while I picked up some birthday party supplies.  As I told the story of convincing them to leave their huge cardboard hats behind, it sounded really uninteresting in contrast to the Eiffel Tower.  I shyly handed over my phone.

As she took the screen her whole face softened.  Her eyes lit up.

"The are so cute!" she said.  "I can't wait until this is my life."  She handed back my phone.  Sincerely smiling, she added "You are so blessed."  

Yes.  I am.  

Blessings come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes I want the ones I don't have.  I am living the dream.  It may not feel like my dream all the time, but every day of mine...even all the ones not spent in Paris...are laced with beautiful blessings.

...The sunrise.

...A squirrel on the fence.

...The squishy softness of my son grabbing my fingers.

...The dishes piled in my sink that remind me our family had plenty to eat and that our house is a well lived in home.

Every once in a while I fear that my dreams are on hold.  They feel like distant things, fragile and perishable.  I worry that my dreams are waiting for me under a waterfall, on top of a mountain, or in a publishing house far away.  

Our dreams are never far away.  We carry them in our heart.

God carries our hearts in his hand, and his dreams for us are beyond our imagination.

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

So dream on sisters, of beauty and oceans and sleeping in.  Only know that on this very ordinary day, if you are blessed to love others and know how fully loved by God you are, sweet girl- you are already living. the. dream.