“a dream is a wish, your heart makes”
Cinderella
From the time we moved into the house across from the public swimming pool, she dreamed of being a lifeguard.
She did every expected level of swim lessons, with the determination and focus of a med student.
She observed the lifeguards every summer day she went to public swim (often, twice a day).
She never ran on deck.
Always put water on the back of her neck before entering the water.
Never pushed or roughhoused with other swimmers.
Never dove from the side of the pool.
She has always taken water safety very seriously.
She swam competitively on regional and varsity teams.
She has taken all of the courses, and ended up abandoning her dream … sort of.
At fourteen she got a job as an assistant swim coach.
Since sixteen, she has coached swimmers in a swim club.
For the past three years she taught swim lessons in our own, and the private pools of others.
She has never actually worked (other than privately or in a volunteer capacity at a camp for families with Cancer) as a lifeguard.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Sometimes our dreams take U-turns!
Sometimes our dreams end up deep in the sea of our memories.
Sometimes our dreams have dipped beyond the horizon.
Sometimes …
our dreams get replaced with new realities.
If anyone were to have told our five-year old daughter that she would never work as a lifeguard, she would have been
crushed,
devastated.
Now, looking back at how her dream morphed into something different, she does not look at this change as being a bad thing, but simply a different dream, a new dream.
From the unfulfilled dream, comes a new reality … the new reality a new and living dream.
New has emerged, as the old has passed away.
From the dry ground of
disappointment, hurt, and nightmares,
comes
rebirth, hope, and brand new dreams.
When we face the loss of dreams, may we not lower our heads, and eyes in sorrow
but raise our eyes to ask the lifeguard of eternity
what hardened seeds will you plant in this garden?
itsawonderfilledlife 