I found a box today.
It was labeled ‘Dreams Fulfilled’. It was shoved back in a dark corner where I was sure not to find it except by chance. The sadder thing was that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen it, much less put something into it.
So I dove into that dark corner and wrestled it out of the dust and dark that clung to it like peanut butter to the knife. When I picked it up, I was shocked and a bit saddened at how light it felt.
I set it on a table in the light and slowly lifted the lid. I peered inside and at first didn’t see a thing. Then, as I looked more closely, I saw there in the bottom, one thin little dream.
Carefully, I reached in and brought it out. As I looked it over, I nearly cried. This tiny, fragile thing was the only dream I’d ever fulfilled?
It was a grade school dream to sing the lead in the musical. I had fulfilled that dream, I remembered it well, but where had the rest of my dreams gone? Closing the box, I set it aside. Where could the rest of them be?
I searched high and low, up and down, backwards and forwards, and even upside down, but I couldn’t find it no matter where I looked.
Then it occurred to me to check the dark corner again. And there it was. Next to where ‘Dreams Fulfilled’ had been sat a box labeled ‘Dreams Unfulfilled’.
Apprehensively, I tried to lift it and found it too heavy to lift. I pushed and pulled and kicked it into the light.
I opened it and the dreams spilled out across the floor. I scrambled to catch them, but they just kept coming.
I stepped back and compared the two boxes, realizing how different they were. So empty and light verses so heavy and full.
Some of the dreams were paper thin and others as heavy as giants. Some were so small they were lost in the jumble and others were as big as they sky.
So what does all this mean for me?
Does this mean that some dreams are too impossible to dream and that some are too small to matter?
That can’t be right. I don’t know the word ‘impossible’.
What can I say of my dreams then? They got lost in the shuffle of life and left in a dark corner to rot. That is probably the worst possible thing that could have happened. A dreamer without her dreams is like a unicorn without it’s horn. The whole meaning of being is lost and though life may not loose it’s charm, it lacks something, whether it is noticed by the one who lost it or not.
In my case, I didn’t notice until today.
So the real question is, are these dreams what I’m dreaming now? Do I wish for these things to come true? Do I still believe in these dreams or have they simply turned into old wishes and fantasies?
At the moment, I couldn’t begin to say.