Dream Until it’s Your Reality
I’m back in Seattle after a glorious visit to NYC where I got to see family, friends and, as one of them remarked, got to walk around the city while “bumping into my biography” in all kinds of places. This was the longest visit I’ve had there, probably since my kids were born, and I spent lots of time feeling enormous waves of gratitude and reflecting on how I got to where I am now in my life. I moved to the city when I was 20 to start my sophomore year at NYU to study film. If you had told twenty-year-old me that I would end up living the life I have now I likely would have been astonished. Never would I have imagined myself on the west coast! I’m also pretty sure I couldn’t have pointed to Seattle on a map. There was no such thing as a Life Coach or a Health Coach back then, and literally the only green vegetables I ate were cucumbers, celery and iceberg lettuce.
BUT - even though on the outside my current life would surprise my younger self, on further reflection it’s also, in many ways, the life I dreamed of and ultimately created for myself. I wanted something bigger than the suburban childhood I grew in. I craved connection and deep conversations. I wanted to be surrounded by interesting and creative people. I was hungry for music and art and Love with a capital L. I drew the outline in my mind and through the years I’ve been able to fill in more detail. While there’s no way I could have painted the exact picture of my life today, the bones of it were there all along.
So when I saw this little splash of graffiti in Washington Square Park, it felt like an acknowledgement of where I started (about 4 blocks away in fact) and also of where I’m heading. I may not know exactly what the future will look like but I know how I want it to feel and I know the foundation is already there. I’ll keep dreaming until it’s my reality and then I’ll go on and dream some more. And it’s my wish for all of you reading this as well.
