I eat my special K with a play spoon from their kitchen. And in the doing, I realize there’s a reason it’s only for make believe. Cereal doesn’t stay long on flat. But they play like it’s real, and I think about how much they long for their own real kitchens and spoons while I use their play ones because the real ones are dirty.
***
The girl tried out for American Idol and was so thrilled to get her ticket to Hollywood. And so she packed her bathing suit up in her bag, I’m goin’ to Hollywood, baby! But once she got there, her suit sat in her suitcase. There’s too much work to do. I don’t have time to swim.
***
Sometimes you ask the kids to help you clean and they surprise you with their willingness and ability. And you give them checks on their little board because they earned them. And then, you go check their work.
But you smile in spite of yourself, because they are kids after all. And you consider your goals, how maybe the goal you thought you wanted isn’t the best goal after all, that your heart and efforts may be better spent enjoying the process, the humor, and the life rather than constantly reaching for the future, the dream, the clean.
Pretend spoons never get dirty. And it isn’t a mistake to bring your bathing suit to Hollywood, exactly. But real dreams take real work, and to keep them neat and tidy is a mistake, I think. Making your dreams come true isn’t always so dreamy. And it’s always good to remember the most important thing.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD, “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” – Isaiah 55:8
Surely that applies to everything – to the everyday things of mothering and loving and to the someday things of maybe and impossible. When we begin to realize our dreams and we discover they are nothing like we thought, remember the ways of the Dream-Maker are different. And that dreams have nuts and bolts, too. If they didn’t, then surely they would fall apart.
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