“A dream is a wish your heart makes.” ~ Walt Disney
Walt Disney has made it his life’s work to make dreams come true, for young and old. In fact, I am going to Disney World next Fall to celebrate my aunt’s 70th Birthday, per her request. In that once in a lifetime dream for her is a sense of joy, excitement, and adventure.
Unfortunately for many of us, however, there comes a time when we stop dreaming, or perhaps, simply stop voicing or believing in our dreams. We stop listening to the wishes that our hearts make due to a sense that they are silly, or we don’t have the time/money, or we have more important responsibilities, or perhaps we have lost a sense of our identity and simply have forgotten our dreams altogether. As a society, we have even adopted the phrase, “that’s wishful thinking” to suggest an unadvisable naiveté.
I wonder, however, when “wishful thinking” became a bad thing? I want to reclaim wishful thinking as something to give praise to instead. Perhaps our deepest wishes are signals of our innate passions, those things that give us the energy to live out our greatest potential and purpose in the world. I want to follow “that’s wishful thinking” with “and Alleluia for that!”
Yes, the truth is that not all dreams come true and, at the same time, some do. Some dreams can and will come true if we let them… and if we place our energy and intention behind them. When we remember that we have dreams, and that it is good to have them, it is easier to hold our passion and enthusiasm for life, to hold hope for ourselves and our futures.
And so, I invite you to spend some time this week creating your list of dreams. Take the time to pause, maybe light a candle or make a cup of tea, and begin writing… write your dreams for relationship, for education, for career, for finances, for space/home, for adventure, for growth, for fun, for travel, for health, for creativity, for faith… write all of the dreams you can come up with. Challenge yourself to get to 100.
Then, take just one of those dreams and write a specific goal surrounding this dream and the steps you can take to help manifest it in your life. Most importantly, start acting on your goal.
Dream courageously, honor the wishes of your heart, and give thanks for their existence within you.
Blessings,
Nikki Holm, MA
Chaplain
