Dreams

She finds herself alone after three decades of marriage, living in the reality of her husband’s dream without him by her side.

He had held  this dream for as long as she had known him and when the moment arrived for it to come true, she was at his side, ready for a new adventure.

Neither of them could have known that after only two years, illness would take his life.

Her eyes sweep the space around her. I know that she is seeing him in her mind’s eye as he once was…happy, fulfilled, excited about all the possibilities  that each day would hold.

“He really loved this place,” she said quietly, wistfully.

“Is this a picture of your husband?”  I pointed to a large framed photo in the center of the wall…two smiling people, arm in arm. Partners.

She nodded. “Sometimes I look at that picture and yell at him for leaving me.”

“It’s nice to know that he got to experience his dream,” I said. “So many people never get that chance.”

I thought about those words long after she had said goodbye, standing behind the screen door, hand lifted in a small wave.

Two years…730 days.

That is all the time he had to live his dream.

It seems so short.

But isn’t it better than zero?

When this man left this earth, he didn’t leave wondering, “What if?”

He took the risk…and for two years, he knew exactly what it was like to live smack in the center of the dream.

Isn’t it worth it?

What is your dream?

Whatever it is, what can you do today to move toward making it a reality?

The time is now.

“Life passes like a flash of lightning whose blaze barely lasts long enough to see. While the earth and  the sky stand still forever, how swiftly changing time flies across man’s face. O you who sit over your full cup and do not drink, tell me, whom are you still waiting for?”–Hermann Hesse