Dreams part 1

Taking a deep breath.

I think dreaming is important. I don’t mean the kind of dreaming you do when you are asleep, though I understand that it’s quite important for one’s sanity. But the other two kinds of dreaming: daydreaming and dreams of the future.

Daydreaming: wishful creations of the imagination, letting your mind drift, pleasant visions.

Daydreaming helps us relax and recharge. We live in a society of go, go, go. Do, do, do. Faster and faster and faster until we can’t keep up. I think a lot of people look at daydreaming as a waste of time and that you’re lazy if you do it. I believe we need daydreaming to recharge. If you just keep going all the time you will burn out, life will be a chore instead of a joy. We all need to take time for ourselves, “me time.”

When we slow down and relax, God can meet us there. He patiently waits for us to slow down and stop. Waiting for us to enjoy the life He has given us. He did not give us a life that rushes so fast we cannot enjoy all the beautiful things in this life. So that we can’t enjoy Him.

We have forgotten the old saying: “Stop and smell the roses.” We say that we are too busy. What roses? I don’t see any roses. Don’t they have thorns or something?

Like the White Rabbit who says he is late for an important date, hello, good-bye, I’m late. We are so much like the White Rabbit rushing here and there, never giving ourselves enough time to get anywhere without being late and then we are stressed because we are late.

Our bodies weren’t designed for this kind of hurried life. They were designed to slow down and to be still. Do you know that if you are always go, go, go that sticky platelets build up in your arteries? Eeew! This can lead to heart attacks or strokes or something. Have you ever noticed that when you go, go, go, you eventually get sick and have to stop and sleep for a few days to get well. That is your body telling you to slow down. You can either have forced rest where you are miserable or you can choose when you rest and enjoy it.

One of my favorite children’s books is The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. There is this “It.” It is a circle with an eye and a wedge out of it. It looks a lot like PacMan. So It is spending all it’s time looking for It’s missing piece, the wedge. It rolls along singing and enjoying the small treasures of life. His favorite is when the butterfly lands on him. He finds various pieces but they don’t fit. Finally he finds a piece that does fit and they roll along but he can’t sing very well now with his mouth full, and he rolls faster and faster. He rolls so fast that he can’t enjoy the small treasures of life. And the butterfly can’t land on him. So he stops, sent down the piece, and rolls away singing that he is looking for his missing piece. And the butterfly lands on him and he is happy.

We have become a society so consumed with going and doing we don’t slow down to enjoy life. My pastor is challenging all of us in the church to slow down this year. He admits it is hard for him to do. He used Psalm 46:10a: “Be still, and know that I am God.” He said that maybe being still is too much for us all at once, maybe start with slowing down. With all the pressure our society put on us to produce, do, and go, go, go, it is hard to slow down and nearly impossible to be still. But I’m going to try.

Take a deep breath, slow down, and enjoy life.

Blessings,
Mary
:-)

Next Monday I’ll ponder on future dreams.