DREAMS

 

Heather on the left.  Photo by Chris.  Dance recital 1977.  Might have been "A Midsummer Night's Dream." 

When I was fifteen I didn't have a dream.  I didn't need one as I had home, school with extra curricular activities, church and youth group.  I was busy -- but I lacked one thing.  A dream.  

The world was recovering from World War II back then.  Families were settling down.  Schools were being built along with new housing and new churches.  At Groveton High School we were a bunch of middle class kids.  I had no ambition but to do the least amount of homework while watching TV.  My parents planned for me to attend college at the end of high school.  I had no objection to that.  Still I had no dream.  

Then I met my long time friend Nancy in biology class at Groveton.  We discussed many things and then somehow settled on the dream of traveling to Norway.  We started a business selling sticks of gum at school.  We made 1 cent on each pack.  I think that at the end of our senior year we had enough to buy cherry cokes at the soda fountain in the drugstore in Belleview shopping center. That was the end of that dream.

It was the summer after my junior year in college that I realized I would have to make some plan for what I would do after college.  I had worked at everything from waitress, to janitor, also switchboard operator, and library assistant.  Of course, with no advanced training, and being an eternal optimist, I settled on becoming a "Rockette" in New York.  Another idea was to travel to Korea and work as a "Gray Lady" with the American Red Cross. So these were my new dreams.  First I sent a letter to the Director of Rockettes in New York.  This is the reply I received:

I was 5' 4 3/4".  Could I pass as 5'5"?  In the fall of my senior year I met Chris.  He was the campus yearbook and newspaper photographer. We went out one time.  But then in January I needed a photographer to take a picture of me that made me look tall.  So I contacted my friend Chris and asked if he would photograph me.  He would.  

But then even with the full length photograph in hand I did not want to travel to New York alone. 

(I found out recently that two of my high school classmates had moved to New York after college.  One has recently passed away.  Her good friend wrote this tribute to her. Here is their story: 

"After college she followed her interest in dance and in 1968, she became my roommate in the East Village. Freddi and I took dance classes at Merce Cunningham studio. I still do some dance exercises she showed me. She and I would often dance and do yoga in the empty apartment across the hall. One day as we tried to go in, we realized that Dean Evenson (my future husband) had moved in. Life evolved and when Freddi met Alan her life changed in a wonderful way. I appreciated that we were able to stay in touch when I came to New York and even got to stay in their lovely flat on 10^th Street.")

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So since I had no one to travel with my dream changed.  Instead of traveling to New York or to Korea after college I married my friend, Chris, the photographer.  But God has given me a new dream.  He has blessed us with wonderful children and grandchildren. (Our daughter took dance lessons because of my influence.) I chalk it up to God answering my prayers.  I prayed with many "Moms in Prayer" groups over the years. 

So in addition to my prayer that God would make me into a good wife, parent,  grandparent, He has given me a new dream to lead a "Moms in Prayer" group.  Also, I want to reach out to our neighbors and invite them to church.  I also want to be a mentor to young women.  These are dreams that will affect lives for eternity.  So God gave me new dreams. 

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What lies before me

What stands between

No one can tell me

What I have seen

Some see the tarnish

I see the gleam

I have to wonder

I have to dream

One dream can change you

One dream can make

All the difference

One heart can take

I dream of flying

I'm in mid-air

I have to wonder

What's out there

The skies the limit

Today's the day

(the) Heavens are still there

When skies are gray

Some days are better

Than they seem

Some days are better

Because you dream

On rainbows to rainbows

On starlight to star

To dream isn't that what

Tomorrow is for

Only a dreamer knows what I know

What it's like to wonder

And then let go

On rainbows to rainbows

I know what I seem

I have to wonder

I have to dream 

song by JD Hinton / Rick Solem / Ross Vannelli