Don’t Desert Your Dreams
On Christmas morning, my girls look forward to a few things: discovering what gifts they’ll find under the tree, homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast (with a side of bacon protein to balance out the sugar), and having a piece (or two) of chocolate even before the cinnamon rolls are in the oven. It’s a holiday, after all, and worthy of mixing up the usual routines we follow most of the other days.
We treat birthdays similarly. The birthday girl gets to choose her dinner option without limits to what she should have. Instead, she gets to have what she wants to have. Even if that involves her eating dessert before her dinner.
More recently, I’ve started making those treasured cinnamon rolls more often or dishing out ice cream even though it’s getting close to dinner or making cookies and letting the girls have one before lunch.
These unexpected moments bring us delight, especially when we choose them just because. Just because it’s school break. Just because it’s Saturday morning and it’s July. Just because we deserve a treat for all the hard work we’ve been putting in. Just because.
Just because.
As I made lunch the other day, I couldn’t help but think about the expectations we carry into each task we face each day. Even before I put the food on the table I knew one of my girls likely would ask whether she can have something sweet when she’s done. They know protein comes before sweet treats most of the time.
And isn’t that the way I tend to treat my dreams. Maybe you do, too?
Most days I put my dreams off to focus on all the things I think I should do until eventually my To Do list of tasks is overflowing and there is no time to nurture my ideas, my passions, my dreams.
If I were to guess, some of this overflowing task list is procrastination, procrastination motivated by fear, doubt, and a sense of duty (to what, I’m not sure I could say in the moment, but likely everyone but myself).
But just as much of my To Do list is the ingrained belief I should do the things that need to be done before doing any of the things I want to do and bring me delight. It’s just like my girls know that protein comes before sweet treats.
Dinner first, then dessert.
But while that’s a good approach for my growing girls most of the time, what about me and my dreams? What would happen if I added writing time or reading time or Morning Pages or Artist Dates to my To Do list? Would my world withstand it? Would my dreams?
Because I don’t know about you, but creating a To Do list seems to relegate that item to a category of things I’d rather not do. Yet even as I write those thoughts onto the page, I realize it’s because my lists have only ever included chores, long lists of chores without any hint of tasks that bring delight or inspire hope or encourage creativity.
Perhaps it’s time for me to think differently.
Perhaps it’s time for me to enjoy my days because they include things I want to do alongside things I need to do. Perhaps it’s time for me to consider my dreams something I need to do as well as something I want to do.
Perhaps it’s time for me to shift how I see these dreams and passions I’ve been gifted and allow myself to indulge in them like dessert before my dinner.
