Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Dreams, they slip through our fingers do they not? I wanted to be an actress, a writer, a journalist, a wife, a peace corps participant, a homeowner, a career woman.And yet, in time, those dreams vanish like mist and I find myself only wanting what I can have today: "I want waffles."
Where to find equilibrium? If dreams vanish like dust, shouldn't I take the opposite extreme, wanting nothing at all, so as not to feel disappointed?
Or is it good to dream? Without dreams, we may never have goals, seek accomplishment or feel any kind of gratification.
They say a part of growing up is "having your hopes dashed" and realizing your dreams may never come to fruition. Or maybe part of going through life is realizing that the dream you thought you had wasn't your dream at all. An easy thing to say in retrospect. But when you want the dream in the present, losing out to it in the present definitely sucks.
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."
But how does one not dwell on dreams? Aren't our dreams what get us through the day? The little specks of light in what could otherwise seem meaningless?
A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep.
But too often, I am slapped in the face with the reality: the unpleasant disconnect between what I yearn for, and the patterns that life consistently throw at me.
And then nihilism sets in and I let go completely. "If I can't have it, I don't want it...."
I see that both schools of thought lead to destruction. I therefore must reject both. And seek an answer that I'm not even sure I lack the cynicism to believe:
"Delight yourself also in the LORD; and he shall give you the desires of your heart."
