Circles of grace, circle of women telling story, circles where we sit shoulder to shoulder and can look each other in the eye. Twice in the last week I have had the privilege of sitting in a circle of women who have dared to share their dreams with each other.
One of my friends here in this small West Coast community has recently published her first novel. She has waited through this process, searching for a publisher, wondering if there was one, yet never giving up on her dream. She kept herself busy with her work which is writing articles for a German newspaper, while continuing the search to keep her dream alive. I would give you a link to the book but I can't read German, or write it! Befriend Your Enemy is her novel and it can be found on Amazon, in German. Bernadette had invited us to a cocktail party, a group of 13 women from this community, yet originally for all over the world. We sat down together it became a circle. Bernadette challenged us to share a dream we have fulfilled, or one we are still waiting on. Some of us knew each other but for others this was a first time meeting. Yet each courageously dared to share a dream.
Each dream was grand and glorious - simply because it is daring to believe what looks impossible could become reality. Speaking the words legitimized them - how often we feel our dreams are illegitimate and have to be hidden away. Why? Why must they be kept in the dark when they are written on our heart and soul? Do they not deserve the dignity of being spoken, to be given breath? Fear holds the key that wants them locked away; fear that this one will never come to pass. Oh I know that fear well but today I look it in the eye and challenge it for what it is - the cowardlyness of those who dared us not to dream and gave their keys to our own fear. All the dreams shared came from artistic souls. They were not "role" dreams but rather individual and unique coming from the place of knowing their own identity. Not spoken from a place of who others thought they were but of knowing their own heart writing.
Another circle was women who are getting to know each other, meeting each Monday afternoon to share where we are on this journey. The ones who did share spoke of relationship, of heart longing, yet perhaps less of knowing their own identity. I ask the question - why is the "Christian" community so afraid to dream? Why are we so afraid to believe God can and does give us dreams? That is another topic to explore.
The commonality lies in the passion of the dreams. To dream is to let passion breath upon our soul. At least this is how I see it. Passion that dares us to live, really live, within our own skin, learning to love our story and every winding road it has travelled. Daring to give the future roads honour and dignity,(as well as the past) and the passion of letting the Spirit within breathe through me, in me. Perhaps dreaming is placing the etchings of the heart in holy waiting, sacred space where the circle of Grace holds us and our dreams in the Light.
Circles - we come full circle when we travel through the Valley of Weeping and step into the Acres of Hope. A circle of others who travel with us gives us hope.
"I've always longed to live in a place like this, always DREAMED of a room in your house, where I could...And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel;They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!God-travelled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn - Zion!God in full view!"