People say I'm a dreamer- Am I the only one?

Dreams. Dreams can be big. They can be tiny. They can be our escape. They can be our courage. They can be our downfall. They can even become our obsession.


Say what you like about dreaming, but I believe there are wonderful things we don’t want to miss about dreaming. Especially when it comes to dieting.


I know, I know, I promised to tell you about the YMCA 3 hour torture session. But we had a family emergency Friday night, and I didn’t get to bed until 3am. I was not prepared to work out 5 hours later. So I turned off the alarm and gave in to resting instead. And the inevitable story of how Charlie made a fool of herself will have to wait. Don’t worry, I’ll pee my pants doing exercises eventually and tell you about it first thing. But for today, we are going to talk about dreams.


My brother said something interesting tonight. He was telling us about the wonderful aid fabric softener was to his project of removing wallpaper from his house. And that was about the time his pure genius kicked in.


“I wonder who the first person was who said ‘Hey, I am going to see if something I use to make my clothes soft and smell good would help me remove a bunch of glue gunk on the walls?’”


He then made a ridiculous remark about trying to use asparagus on his head to see what that might do… but the question remained that he asked. And I kept thinking about that question the entire night.


Maybe it’s because I don’t live life the way many would want to. Matt and I choose to drive crappy cars, live in a crappy house, spending less on stuff, and more on things like music lessons for our family and fresh vegetables. We don’t even begin to keep up with the Joneses, don’t invite the Joneses over for that matter, and have couches that smell like we’ve had one too many peanut butter and banana sandwiches stuck on them. Our house isn’t ever spotless in all 5 rooms at the same time, and there is always a mountain of laundry lurking in a corner or 3 at any given time (taunting me, I might add) and our beds are NEVER made.


What in the world does this have to do with dieting? Hold on, I’m on a roll, and I promise I will get to it.


Our life isn’t particularly glamorous in any way shape or form, and I am miserable at things like balancing a check book, keeping money in our savings account, and am not above ordering pizza for the family when I am purely feeling lazy and have an aversion to cooking that night.
I wasn’t kidding when I said I was a mess. See? There’s proof.


But in all that stuff, I am holding a powerful weapon in the artillery of life. I am not above dropping everything and praying (not bragging here, just making a point) for someone in need, making silly gag gifts to make someone laugh who really needs it, and stopping whatever I am doing to watch an impromptu dance recital from over zealous kids.


I am not so busy doing “important things” to stop and find the blessing in a crisis. Or am never too far from feeling destitute that we won’t help someone who is feeling the pinch themselves. I am never far enough from 238 that I can’t remember the pain of reality with someone who has weighed themselves for the first time and are losing their courage.


What I have doesn’t define who I am.


What I am is never about the what’s in front of me.


I have learned that Charlie- this unorganized, crisis riddled, basket case, obstinate woman- can be just the person God intended for her to be, and I will NOT apologize for that.


I have been bound in glue before. God has used his own version of fabric softener on my heart, and by bringing me through drama after drama, issue after issue, has made me a woman who is a softer, more loving version of herself than the world would care for her to be. Cause this world can’t stand a dreamer. And that’s exactly what I am.


Yep, I am a sentimental, romantic, nutcase of a dreamer.


I will never be good at a 9-5 job. I will always follow my heart instead of my wallet or my brain. I will always make an exception to the diet when good company can be had while eating junk. I will hug my children in front of their friends, cry in public, and pray with someone no matter where they are or how uncomfortable it may seem.


Ok, you may thing that breaking the diet for company was my point about dieting. HA-HA!


Wrong you are. This is my point.


I dream about being thin. All the time. I can’t wait to get there, and until I do, I’m not above dreaming what it will be like.


I have lived life as a wall with a hideous 1970s orange and brown ugly wall paper stuck to me. It’s not pretty or flattering, but I dream of shedding that paper and becoming a wall with beautiful pictures of all the places I have been hanging from my flat surfaces. But the wallpaper- hideous and blinding- keeps me from placing those pictures on my wall. They don’t match, and it would look odd, to say the least.


Dreaming about where I am going- the land of skinnydom- is like a fabric softener on that ugly paper I have been stuck with. Sure, a couple pieces of the paper came down with no problems, but a lot of it is stuck to me and won’t come off without a fight. And some fabric softener. And lots and lots of elbow grease, as my home renovating brother will attest to.


In order for us to drop the weight, we have to have something soft that counteracts the glue of our fat. That soft thing we need are dreams. Dreams about jogging a mile without needing paramedics. Dreams about clothes with the numbers 5/6 in them instead of 16/18 or 26/28. Dreams of your scale not creaking when you step on it. Dreams are the fabric softener that help us shed that unwanted motif of fat.


That’s my point. I knew I’d get to it eventually.


So there’s your thought for today. What can you dream up about your life changes? Can you see the dreams as a reality? Are you willing to work hard to achieve those dreams?


Tell me, my sweet readers, what are the dreams you have been too afraid to dream up and go after? If you gave yourself the opportunity to achieve them- what would your life be like?