The Life She Dreams Of

It’s Thanksgiving Day, but strangely enough there is no nip in the air, no coats in the hall. There is no roasted turkey and no candlelit meal. There are no neighbors flying cornucopias of abundance on banners outside their front doors. In fact, none of them likely know that “Thanksgiving” is even a day. You see, I’m in Africa.

But midst seeing pictures from my dear friends and family who are enjoying celebrating together without me, my heart is not filled only with sadness at missing out on this holiday.

As I’ve been settling into our little concrete apartment, hanging curtains and unpacking totes, I’ve been thinking about how an ungrateful heart steals the life from me that I really wanted to live. My dream life is always out of reach when my arms are already filled with the cumbersome clutter of ingratitude.

So, irregardless of the fact that it is Thanksgiving Day (in fact, I quite forgot about it when the thoughts on gratitude originated yesterday), I am focusing my heart on thankful wonderings. 

I’m thinking...that no matter what things I am facing and no matter where I am, there is doubtless someone somewhere out there who is dreaming of living the life that I actually live.

Don’t you think? Now, I recognize that you may be thinking, “Okay, so you’re just trying to say the timeless ‘be thankful for your dinner because someone is hungry in Africa’ in different words.” I could be. But irregardless of that, why not stop to do a little imagining with me. 

Someone tonight is dreaming of having a marriage that works and a husband who loves her. 

Someone else is dreaming of having enough food to eat, while sitting in an empty room with an empty cupboard and an empty wallet. 

“She” dreams of having a child to love, just one, matter not if the child is sick or obnoxious. She dreams of having a warm place to sleep just like mine, while huddled under a piece of cardboard, a wet refugee tent, or a bridge. 

She dreams of having a family who supports and cares about her, in the midst of humdrum, crisis, shame or success. She dreams of working a job she enjoys, satisfied as she helps other people live better lives.

She dreams of knowing teamwork in marriage, experiencing the joy of pulsating together with the Spirit of God for a life worth living and dying for. 

She dreams of going to the grocery store and buying eggs, milk, cheese, and bread, and still having money left over for bananas. 

She dreams of having enough leisure time to read a book, or to sit and think without some sadist yelling at her to never stop working. 

She dreams of having just one beautiful, elegant dress to wear for special occasions. 

She dreams of knowing a God who will speak to her and hear her prayers. She dreams of being able to have a family to have devotions with each day. 

She dreams of living in another season which is not filled with so much pain, so much weeping, so much trauma or grief. 

She dreams of the ability to walk, simply stand up and walk, go to the sink and get a drink, go to the bathroom by themselves, go scoop that cute child up and twirl them around the room.

She dreams of the luxury of being able to read and write, a world she can only imagine, as she carries water or stirs pots of steaming food for people whose belief systems have kept her from entering that world of words.

The “she” in those sentences represents the dreams of millions of women just like me living on this same planet.

Most of us are living proof that the life we live does not come without lots of challenges. Yet, how wrong it would be to live the life so many are dreaming of, without cherishing this blessed chance. 

How tragic it would be if I would not spend this life of mine content and delighted, for I am blessed beyond conceivability. And even with its hardships, disappointments and struggles, this is the life I have dreamed of too.

Look around you. Do you see the life of someone’s dreams? Do you have enough food to eat? A place to call “home”? People to love? The ability to sleep at night? A 2018 without any personal tragedies or traumas? The chance to read? The ability to talk to and learn about Jesus Christ? 

Perhaps you do not right now have every last thing on that list, but stop to think of it: if your reality includes even one of them you are living out a life someone else is longing for.

Happy Thanksgiving Day, and may you truly bless the Lord with all that is within your soul today.