“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.”

Henry David Thoreau

{“But there is something that needs to happen first.” Me ???? }

This post was originally an Artnote. I dug it out from the archives because a} I think it’s pretty good ???? , and b} it’s always a good time to check in on your dreams and have a little ponder about how to bring them into the here and now!

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Have you ever had a long held dream actually come true?

I’m writing to you today at my scrubbed pine dining table, sun pouring in through the French doors opened into a wild and abundant garden with its view of the denim blue sea beyond, only the sound of birds and the occasional whickering of my equine neighbours to break the silence {ok, and the fridge ???? }, in a stone walled old barn which has just been pulled apart and put back together, more or less, just for me.

I am quite literally sitting inside one of my lifelong dreams. Which means it’s not a dream any more – it’s suddenly my actual life.

There is so much talk out there on the internet and beyond about dreaming – having them, chasing them, making dream boards, manifesting – we are a dream-loving species to be sure.

But sitting here, I am struggling to recall having come across anything much about what it’s actually like when you bring a long cherished dream from the realms of imagination into your day to day reality.

I suppose that’s the point at which most movies end isn’t it – the dream the characters were striving for becomes real, and everyone lives happily ever after. The end.

But actually, the beginning.

If you’re reading this, there’s no doubt you have some ‘one day’ dreams.

A relocation, a renovation, a relationship, a vegetable garden, a novel, travel, a career – there’s surely something {or several somethings} you’ve got tucked away in your heart that you’d like to have happen ‘one day’.

What would have to change for you to be saying, one day just became today?

Often of course it has to be ‘one day’, because right now is not the right time. I do believe there is an element of divine timing to our lives.

But I wonder how many dreams are ‘one day’ because we don’t ever really believe they can or will come true. Maybe, on closer inspection, we’d find we don’t even really need some of them to.

Two opposing things have been true for me for most of my life.

I’ve always lived in – and loved – cities.

And I’ve always dreamed of a cosy cottage beside the sea with rough stone walls, tongue and groove panelling, a corner sofa you could sink into, a fireplace, wood flooring, a swing seat in the garden, and a Shaker style kitchen with oak worktops.

Here’s the thing: in order for that dream to come true, I had to become the person who could live it.

Now, the dream of the cottage wasn’t always at the forefront of my life’s ambitions, nor was it a straight A to B kind of journey.

But I think that all along, through the many unhealthy life choices I made, through the rough decades of depression, through the healing and the learning, it was all contributing to building me into this person, the one who can have the dream.

She feels pretty new, quite honestly. Sometimes I don’t entirely recognise myself. But I recognise the dream, and I know what it’s taken to get here.

Because that’s what ‘one day’ really is, to me. It’s the lining up of dream and dreamer; the becoming of the person who can live that dream.

You can’t force a dream, but you can become the person who can live the life it represents. Which really puts us in the driving seat doesn’t it?

I often talk about how if the desire is in you to paint, then so is the capability – it may take some practice to gain the skill to match the desire, but if you’re called, there’s a reason for that.

I think it’s the same with any dreams; none of our dreams are impossible, they may just take some evolving into.

Of course, as soon as you bring a dream to life, more take its place. That’s the nature of being human.

I’ve got all sorts of dreams still to line up with! {My vegetable growing, art gallery selling, daily sea swimming self hasn’t quite evolved into the here and now yet.*}

But perhaps this is something to think about today, as you head off into your week.

• What dreams are you holding dear that require a shift in you in order for them to become your actual life?
• What erroneous beliefs are currently lodged between who you are now and the person who could thrive in that life?
• Who would you need to be – and what would you need to let go of – to be that person living that dream?

May your dreams be closer than you think, and may you have a wonderful creative week.

*Part of the reason I loved stumbling on this post was that those three things are also now regular features in my life! So important to keep track of our dreams – sometimes they come true and we don’t even realise!