To Dream Impossible Dreams: My Greatest Desire

No, my name isn’t Susan Boyle. No, I will not start singing. Yes, I know that she sang “I Dreamed a Dream” instead of “The Impossible Dream.” Work with me here. It’s the feel… the tone, right? Something?

Okay, whatever. The point is, we all have dreams, right? Some dream of travel. That sounds good to me. I’d like to see Greece, tourist India (I couldn’t hack “real” India. Just sayin’.), England—oh, who am I kidding? The British Isles.

And New Zealand. Definitely, want to go “down under” to one or both of the cool places down there. Part of me says Egypt, but… maybe not. I don’t know. If I had the money, I’d visit every country in the world—or at least most of them.

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But that’s not “my impossible dream.”

Some want fame and fortune. Now, I have cool ideas of what I could do with fortune—like pull off my own version of the WestJet Christmas Surprise! Watch! It’s awesome!

Fame? Well, honestly, I had my fame moment. I know it sounds silly, but it’s the one that made me feel like I’d “arrived” as an author. And I’m content with that one moment, frankly.

So there I was seated in the Charlotte, NC airport, working on a book after a long, and wonderful retreat weekend. The first warning calls that my flight would begin boarding came, but I kept typing. Still, each time they called another “zone” to board, I glanced up to get a feel for where things were. And each time I caught the eye of a woman… watching me.

It got a little creepy.

I usually wait for that “final call” they talk about. You know, the five-minute warning before they close the doors for good. Why? Well, for two reasons.

1. I check my baggage, so the only thing I carry is my purse or a laptop case with my purse in it. This means I do not slow things down once I do board. I sit, stow under my seat, done.
2. I do not want to sit in those seats any longer than necessary. Blech.

But when I looked up again, and this time the woman didn’t even try to hide her stare, I decided maybe I should get on the flight before some human traffickers kidnapped me to work in a sweatshop, churning out bad fiction to confuse the Amazon algorithm.

So, I packed up my laptop, stowed the cord, and rose. The woman caught my eye again. But this time, instead of just staring, she swiped the screen of the tablet she’d been reading and turned it to face me.

Past Forward stared back at me.

And the woman? She beamed at me. That whole “grin split her face from ear to ear?” I’ve always thought it was a rather revolting description if you want the truth. But that day? Totally beautiful.

Wait. What was I talking about?

Oh! Dreams. Yeah. I don’t have very many of those things. Most I had in the past have changed, or the Lord already fulfilled them. But there’s one—in my writing world—and yeah, it’s an impossible dream. But it’s mine nonetheless.

My impossible dream—to live long enough to write all the books.

Have you ever read one of those blog posts that warn against trying to do “all the things”? Yeah. I actually have one scheduled. I’ve wanted to write it for quite a long time. But until now, I haven’t. For one reason. Hypocrisy. We’re all hypocrites—whether we mean to be or not. But to do it deliberately seemed a bit much. Then it hit me.  Why shouldn’t others learn from my mistakes—from what the Lord has taught me.  Maybe it’ll save them some frustration or heartache.

And I really want to write all the book ideas I have clamoring for attention in my head.

I thought I had a solution for it, you know. My friend April and I have this “Write a Story Challenge” we do over on Instagram. It’s pretty simple. You get a word for every day of the month, you write one to three sentences using that word, and bam! A short story or a book outline in story form done at the end of a month or three.

Cool, right?

I decided to take it a step further. I’d use the challenge to write “Instagram Serial Novels.” It would be a cool way to do the challenge and to use up some of my languishing story ideas. It’s like the Twitter version of Dickens—on Instagram! Cool, right?

Yeah. Fail.

All it means is I now want to write those stories—as full-length books, of course—more than ever.

But—commercial break, here—you could always join us.  Just hop on over to April’s blog and join her newsletter (or bookmark it to come back, but it’s easier not to have to remember), and she’ll be posting the new list of words late next week! It looks like this!

You can also follow me on Instagram for the daily bites or on the Pinterest board where you get chunks of it at semi-regular intervals

I had I had another dream idea—a better one—before I settled on finishing all the books.

It would have read something like this: My biggest dream for writing was to make a difference in someone’s spiritual life—to point them to Jesus.

Why isn’t this a “thing” for this post? It sounds good and beneficial, right? It’s sincere. There’s just one problem. I have a folder full of emails that tell me I’ve already done that. The Lord is good to me that way. And as much as I want to keep encouraging my brothers and sisters, as much as that is why I WRITE… it felt like cheating not to choose something I haven’t done—even something I can’t do.

So, I kept going. Because, no matter how hard I try to think of something else I want more, I can’t think of one—writing related, I mean. And if I don’t answer this question in regards to my dreams for my writing, then I’ll never decide.

Life dreams are even harder—too broad.

So here it is. I want to be able to write all the books on my heart.

I just want to run this writing race with everything I’ve got. And when I come to the end and see that tape stretched across the finish line, I want to break through it instead of collapse with those extra yards (books) unfinished.

And you know, it won’t happen. I’m fully aware of that. It won’t. But I’m sure going to try. Starting with the next. Because that’s all I can really do. Write the next one—and then the next. And if I do my job well, I’ll get the joy of knowing that I encouraged a brother or sister along the way.

But it’s impossible.  I know it.  And as okay with it as I’m not… I am.  Because I truly believe the Lord will give me every mment I’m supposed to have.  🙂

Do you have an “impossible dream”? Is there something you can do to make it possible or to accept the impossibility?