30 Days in Dreamland

I love September.

I love the cooler temperatures, the turning of the leaves, the return to routine and the planning, planning, planning.

This past month has been a perfect lead up to September as there seemed to be a consistent theme of “dreaming”. What are my dreams?

It has been a while since I have taken time to consider them. In fact, most times I feel as though I have lost sight of them altogether. I have spent the majority of the past 12 years chasing my husband’s dreams. That might seem like a loaded statement but while there were times when bitterness hardened my heart, most of the time, I have been happy to do it primarily because I admire the fact that he has such dreams. He is passionate about what he does. Music, for him, is above all, a vocation: a summons to an occupation, or a divine call to Christian service. I think it is an incredible gift and it is one of the attributes that attracted me to him.

That being said, I feel that it is time to carefully consider where we go from here and how I will be able to spread my wings in that place. It’s no secret that we are always looking to the next chapter. We knew this state would be temporary and in a year from now we will find ourselves in the familiar place of job-hunting. You see, while Ben’s doctorate is a 3-5 year process, yesterday was the first day of his last year of course work. He calculated that it is his 22^nd year of school. Wowza! After course work, it’s all research and dissertation writing – which may happen here in Edmonton, but could happen anywhere.

My life is in God’s hands. I know not where I will be next, nor what I will be doing. That being said, I believe that God gives us dreams. He gives us notions of where we should be and of vocation.

Which leads me to a September writing challenge. Yes, I joined a 30-day writing challenge. Why? Possibly because I am masochistic or possibly, because I am delusional and think somehow I will find the time to write every single day or possibly, because, as I mentioned before, I see things more as opportunities than obligations. I am always up for a challenge, especially in September, so I joined. The only problem is what to write on. So why not kill two birds with one stone. For the next 30 days, I am going to write on dreams. I have a lot of exploration to do so I am thinking that I probably won’t run out of content or ideas and will come to the end of September, being not only a better writer but possibly a dreamer as well.