Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Dare to Dream

I had a birthday recently. I am long past the days of candles on cakes but I am not above making a wish or two even now. These days we call them goals and add them to our bucket list. My mother was a great one for making wishes. All through my childhood we blew out candles and wrestled good-naturedly over wishbones whenever a turkey got roasted. We’d spend hours sitting in the middle of a clover patch looking for that elusive four-leafed specimen. My mother thought it would bring her luck but mostly we just enjoyed the hunt for something rare and the triumph that comes along with success. I suppose that’s why I used to enjoy the “Where’s Waldo” books that were popular years ago.

I remember sitting on the back porch on long summer afternoons and playing a game with my Mom that involved her imaginary “presto” machine. We would take turns sharing our fondest wishes and then we would presto them into existence. Of course one thing would lead to another until the dream we built grew to massive proportions bordering on the ridiculous. It was a happy game…almost on a par with the times we recorded ourselves giggling and laughing hysterically on a cassette player until we’d filled the whole tape. Then we would play it back and try to keep our faces straight as we listened. It’s actually quite impossible to do.

We learned two important lessons from those games. Laughter really is good medicine and exercising your imagination is a wonderful way to open up new worlds and explore outside the ordinary every day bonds of life. We learned that it was okay to dream and even to dream big. When you dream together with someone you both get a glimpse into each other’s hearts.

My husband and I keep a list of dreams and wishes. Who knows? We may even achieve some of them. I just love the sense that we have a lot to look forward to that it gives me.

Thanks, Mom.

1 comment:

  1. Better to aim at something and miss then to aim a nothing and hit.

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