A Letter of Dreams and Making Moments Count

The horizon gives us a place to look when we need to steady our minds and remember why the little moments matter most.

Dearest Reader,

I've always been a dreamer. Some might say to a fault. I'll dream and wander in my own thoughts until the reality blurs with the imagination. One could say it's how I cope in a world to which I'm unaccustomed. I do not handle change well. I've lived in many places and experienced many wonderful, new, and exciting things, but when I return home, I wish things to be as they were when I left.

I find too often the ground beneath me shifting to the point where I wake up and I don't recognize the world. I've lived in small towns most of my life, in part for the quiet, but also because they tend to remain . . . familiar. There's growth, but not too much. I leave and return a year later, and most everything is the same. I enjoy the sameness.

Writing allows me to dream the impossible dreams and live any life I could possibly imagine, all from the comfort of what's familiar. I can drive up to Glacier Park one morning to explore and bask in the glorious beauty of a place I know and love, then return home and join my characters on an action-packed adventure of suspense I wouldn't want to experience in real life.

Sometimes, though, sticking with only the familiar keeps us from experiencing those unique moments that make life so remarkable. The comfortable and familiar moments matter, too, but once in a while we need to step away from the everyday and explore what's beyond, no matter where it takes us.

This is one of the things I love most about writing. I was so busy in my twenties exploring all sorts of different places, and I didn't take the time I should have to make each moment count. I wanted to make them ALL count. Balance between dreams and adventure, simple living and wanting everything all at once, is not easy.

What I've been able to discover is that tomorrows aren't guaranteed, so all those dreams and moments that matter most are important today, in this moment. Even if I crave the familiar and want nothing to change, life's journey isn't about remaining in one place, doing the same thing. Change is about learning, contributing, and dreaming.

This morning you may drive your child to school or go to the same job you've had for fifteen years, and you may do those same things every day, but the little changes and the big dreams help us live in the now.

Dream on and dream well!