the dreaming is real

'The dream is a lie,

but the dreaming is real.'

(Bob Weir)

'I have a dream…'

'I'm livin' the dream!'

'This is a dream come true!'

this past weekend, i had the pleasure and privilege of being a part of an experience that was 'a dream come true' (at least for the couple getting married).

Sami and Jake are two amazing young adults who have hearts as big and beautiful as the Pacific Ocean. they share a deep passion for life and a deeper compassion for others. and those 'others' include not only family and friends, but also animals.

Over their 8 years together, they have rescued and adopted feral cats, volunteered at animal shelters and rehabilitation centers, even fed lions and tigers (oh my!).

this deep love for the various residents of the creature kingdom has impacted significant life decisions along their journey, including their hopes and visions for the day they would join their lives together in marriage.

they had a dream. and that dream came true.

interestingly enough, when i first talked to Sami and Jake about their wedding and they shared those hopes and visions with me, they told me that their original dream did not even conceive of the possibility that their special day could take place at the San Francisco Zoo, or any zoo for that matter. it was an opportunity that arose as Sami's parents were scoping out possible locations. it emerged in the course of the hoping, visioning, dreaming.

and the dream evolved. it looked different than their original dream. but the engaging, stunning, breathtakingly beautiful experience of their wedding celebration not only lived up to their hopes, visions and dreams. it exceeded them.

it was not simply a dream imagined and realized. it was a dream expanded and transcended.

it was not merely a dream come true.  it was a dream come REAL.

(the radiantly lovely and loving couple living their dream)

we live and move and have our being in a culture where we are encouraged to 'dare to dream' and even 'live the dream'. as individuals and in communities, we place a lot of emphasis upon discerning a dream, casting a vision, and then working intentionally and thoughtfully to embody that dream and live into that vision. it is a central part of a life well-lived, hopefully benefitting others and our world, and giving us a sense of joy and satisfaction along the way. 

sometimes these dreams and visions are realized just as we imagined them. many times they are not.

but it seems that as soon as an individual or community articulates that dream and casts that vision, it becomes obsolete. why? because the dream/vision empowers us to pursue it, and in the journey of pursuit we are opened to other possibilities and opportunities that we never imagined were possible when we first dreamed the dream and casted the vision. and so, the dream is diversified. the vision variates and evolves into a new shape, a different form, often with the same spirit.

i wonder if the point of having dreams in the first place isn't so much to make them come true, but rather, to set us off on the adventure of dreaming that ultimately makes us more true. 

perhaps our dreams aren't meant to be goals for us to achieve at the end of the journey, but catalysts for us to embark on the journey in the first place.

maybe our dreams are less a known destination at which to arrive, and more an invitation to leap into unknown realms in which we learn not merely to survive but to thrive.

i don't know that the dreams that inspire us are, in the words of Mr. Weir above, a 'lie'. but i do have a sense that actualizing them as we first envisioned them isn't as important as how they empower us to step out in trust and faith in our lives, and how we are more inspired and actualized as people as a result.

i know that in all my dreaming, i never imagined that my journey would lead to a day where i had the privilege and joy of standing before a radiantly lovely couple and their radiantly loving family and friends, surrounded by graceful and glorious creatures from half way around the world and the big and beautiful Pacific Ocean, all singing and splashing and sighing their spectacular and sacred songs of celebration to our Creator amidst waves of wonder, tears of translucent joy, and laughter filled with great Love.

a dream expanded and transformed that created an experience of transcendence.

a dream come real that made us all a little more TRUE.

Sami and Jake (with family, friends, animals, ocean and Creator…
all celebrating :)

8 March 2014, San Francisco Zoo