Day Dreaming

Erica Layne asks, “Do you remember who you were before the world told you what you needed to be?” read it again.

When you were younger, did you spend time thinking about future you? Tell me..

What did life look like? Did you go abroad to college? Travel? Marry? Children? Where did you live? What career were you being so successful at? What did you look like? How do you dress and relate to the world? Artist? Pro-golfer? Poet? Yoga instructor? Pilot? How many dogs… ok if you know me that was always in my equation..for the record I’ve had two dogs for a total of 30 years, that’s 210 dog years.

A while ago I realized that somewhere along the way I stopped really dreaming of my future. The FUN things. The reaching things. The stuff we talked about when sitting around late at night in college. Would I own a home in Italy? Charter a beautiful sailboat and sail the Pontine Islands? Work on a ranch? Write a novel or song loved by generations (….that one was probably never gonna happen but it’s MY dream and I can fill it with whatever I want!!)

Someone told me the other day that most people spend more time planning their vacations than their lives. Is that because we retreat to default? Does life wear us down? OR is it that we’ve never indulged or dared to dream the dream? It may not have been modeled to us yet. Maybe afraid of falling short and becoming disappointed? Is that why even if we have those inklings of dreams we don’t talk about them? Is it our conditioning to just do the next thing? To ignore the idea of our fantastic story?

In his classic poem Harlem, Langston Hughes writes:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

I couldn’t say why we stop dreaming, maybe all of the above, but I am here to say we need to pick it up again. That’s what I did, it’s so fun! I have the heart of someone with many full, achieving and contributing years ahead. There is so much I want to create and share with you.

Get going on your dream. It's NEVER too late! Heck, given your assembled experience, you'd most likely be so much better at it now then before.

Plan on it.

Depend on it.

Then share it.

We all want to see you achieve it.

So what's next for you? Take yourself out of default and direct your brain to your heart. This could be fun!

Grateful for you,

Anne