Field Of Future Wishes

I was driving to work this morning and I simply couldn’t keep the smile off my face. The sun was shining, the trees were green, there was fun music on the radio, and to top it all off I drove past a field bathed in a sea of yellow. Dandelions. A whole field full of dandelions. If you’re one of my long time readers you know how much I like dandelions and know that I have written a post about them in the past. Well, as I drove past that beautiful yellow field, I realized every single one of those dandelions is a future wish, just waiting to be made, waiting to come true.

You’ve all heard it. How if you blow on a dandelion when it’s all that white fluff, make a wish, and you set all the seeds flying in one breath, then your wish will come true. I, for one, have made hundreds of dandelion wishes. As I’m sure many of you have as children, if not even now. Everyone’s got wishes of one form or another. Some are big, some small, but all equally important to the one doing the wishing. Dandelions don't discriminate; they accept all your wishes equally. And there are certainly plenty of dandelions to go around. The wisher, however, seems to be becoming more and more rare.

Why is it that wishing on dandelions, wishing at all, is seen as so silly as adults? We all have wishes, but why are we so afraid to admit it? Is it because we’re afraid they’ll never come true? Afraid of getting our hopes up only to have them crushed by reality? Well, we can't just wish on a dandelion and expect our wish to come true the next day. That, in fact, is silly. We need two things to make our wishes come true: faith and hard work.

Making our wishes come true takes faith. Before we can sufficiently work for something we need to actually believe it can happen. We need to believe our wish can in fact come true. How many of us just put off our dreams and wishes as wishful thinking? Talk ourselves out of them before they even have a chance? I know I do. We need to trust that if our wishes are supposed to come true, God will make it happen. He has the power to make our dreams a reality. But we need to believe that, believe in our wishes.

Once you fully believe in your wish and go blow on your dandelion, well then you need to work for it. We can’t just expect everything to come to us. Making our wishes come true takes hard work. If I wish for the chance to travel across the country for example, well I may get the chance, but will I have the ability to if I don’t have the money to do so? I need to make sure I have a job and enough money in my bank account before I can realistically go. Or if someone wishes for a better job, do they have the qualifications for it? Do they have the education or skill? Perhaps before their wish can come true they need to go back to school or work their way up the ladder, learning as they go, to get the job they want.

Blowing on a dandelion probably won’t make your wishes come true, but it’s a good start. Every one of those bright yellow dandelions in that field will turn white soon and I know I won't be afraid to wish on them, blow all those seeds off into the heavens with my wishes in tow. With faith like a child has when blowing on a dandelion, I will trust that my wishes will in fact come true If God wants them to. As long as I am willing to work for them and believe in them. What will you wish for on your dandelion?

Tie a Rope to a Tree

"Tie your shoelaces to my shoelaces I'll tie a rope to a tree"

These are lyrics to a song my mom likes. She manages to work these lyrics into normal conversation on a semiregular basis. I had never really thought about them before, probably because she always gets the words wrong, but I found myself thinking about them the other day. I had been hanging out with a friend and he was encouraging me to consider doing something. It wasn't something bad, and he meant well, but it contradicted what I believed I was supposed to be doing at the time. Needless to say, my head started spinning. But then I surprised myself, I was able to stop myself just before going into a tailspin and remember what God had told me on the subject. I spoke to my mom and felt much better after that. I thanked her for keeping me tied to all the right things and that's when I realized the importance of these lyrics.

"Tie your shoelaces to my shoelaces, I'll tie a rope to a tree"

To me, the tree represents my morals, my faith, God. It's a symbol of stability and all the things I should never let go of, no matter what anyone else says. And I need to stay tied to that tree. When I feel like my hands are slipping, I need to go back and strengthen my grip. The rope is my family and friends, the people who keep me tied to those morals, and to God.

We have little control over what storms will threaten our hold. There will be times when we will be blowing so violently around that tree, lost in the temptations of the world, that we get dangerously close to letting go completely, lost in the storm. There will be other times where it is so calm and sunny that we may find ourselves just... Wandering off. It is easy to lose sight of the important things when everything is going well.

I don't know what The Choir intended the song to mean exactly, but I know what this line means to me. And it's reminded me that we can't stop ourselves from blowing around in the inevitable storm, but as long as we are strong enough to hold on to what’s important, that tree will keep us from blowing away completely. And for that reason, I will strengthen my grip and enjoy the ride!

Your Mother And Mine

Today, as you surely know, is a day to honor some of the most amazing people in the world, our mothers. Whether she be your birth mom, adopted mom, foster mom, anyone who is a mother in your eyes, be sure to let her know how much she means to you today and every day. "A mother, a real mother, is the most wonderful person in the world" in the words of Wendy Darling, and I couldn't agree more.

My mom is the best mom I could ever ask for. I fondly remember her singing me "Little Ducky Duddle," or "Jesus Loves Me," if I couldn't sleep. She'd read to us, even long after we were capable of reading ourselves. She still kisses me goodnight and I hope she never feels she has to stop simply because I'm "too old for that". We never stop needing our mothers, no matter how much we might pretend we do.

As I grow older my relationship with my mom has grown and matured. She is "The helping hand that guides you along" from when you're just a baby through adulthood. For me, my mom has helped me through some really tough times that I simply wasn’t ready to deal with on my own. But with her help and guidance, I am now more prepared to handle the challenges that are bound to come up in the future.

Moms are amazing people. They have to be to put up with us, right? In the words of Wendy’s song,

"What makes mothers all that they are?

Might as well ask what makes a star

Ask your heart to tell you her worth

Your heart will say, heaven on earth

Another word for divine

Your mother and mine"

Again, simply couldn't say it any better myself! So, to all those moms, foster moms, adopted moms, friends moms who treat you like their own, aunts, grandmothers, any mother like figures out there, Happy Mothers Day! You deserve it!

 

Little Voice

You know that little voice in your head? The one that tells you to do something or not do something. Sometimes it sounds like your mother, sometimes you know it's God. And sometimes you listen and sometimes... Well sometimes you don't. Well just like all of you I have that little voice. Most of the time it's just telling me I should go somewhere or not go somewhere, whether I actually listen or not doesn't have any serious consequences. But if I had... Well if I had listened I might not have ended up regretting my decision.

My mom tells a story about that little voice in her head once telling her not to park in a specific parking spot. She didn't listen and came back out to her car to find a dent in the door. Most of the time you can laugh it off and promise to listen closer next time, no matter how ridiculous it might sound. But then there are other times when the consequences might be more than just a ding in your car door...

Sometime last month that little voice in my head told me I should text a friend of mine. See how she was doing. I hadn't talked to her in forever. She was a friend from a long time ago, another life really, so I thought it might be awkward to send her a text out of the blue. So I didn't listen, or simply forgot to since I was working at the time. Either way, I didn't... And now I will always wonder what would've happened if I had...

A few days ago I received news that no one wants to hear. She had passed away that same month.  I still can't wrap my head around it. I think I might be in shock, or simply denial. We hadn't really spoken in years, but I still prayed for her from time to time. Still fondly remembered the times we had together. I always figured our paths would cross again in the future and we had plenty of future for it to happen. Only that future was suddenly cut very short.

A while back the same thing happened. The father of a family friend. We had drifted away from the friend, but I still tried to keep in touch with his father. I wanted to hear stories of his time in the Navy and any other stories he would tell me. I hadn't checked in in a while when I heard that little voice. I never got to send the message. Days later I heard the news.

We always think we have all the time in the world, until we don't. Where do we get that idea from anyway? Years go by and things happen. Life happens. And then it's too late... I know I’m being really gloomy and serious here. Trust me, I know it doesn’t always happen that way. But the times it does certainly make me wish it never did.

I think all those little times, the ones that didn't really mean much one way or the other, were God's way of testing me to see if I was actually listening. Sometimes I was and sometimes I wasn't. Unfortunately the times I wasn't were the important times. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you never know what life will throw at you and at those around you. And if that little voice in your head tells you to do something, you should probably do it, because you might not get another chance. I know that I, for one, will be listening a lot closer from now on.