Most of us have standard autopilot greetings for each other
on a day to day basis. Most of us ignore
these greetings, and give a standard autopilot reply. There’s one that I used to hear on a pretty
regular basis that I never understood.
I would greet someone with, “How are you doing?”
Now this sounds like a standard greeting, but those who know
me know when I say that I actually want to know
how someone is doing! I’m overjoyed when
I get a real answer!
But sometimes someone would answer in a way that I just didn’t
understand. Frankly, it irritated me.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m Livin’ the Dream.”
(They always say it with capital letters.
I still don’t understand how they do that ‘cuz they say it in monotone,
and usually with droopy eyelids.)
Huh? Ok….
One day I reached a point where I heard that phrase uttered
one too many times by a guy behind the coffee shop counter so I asked him:
“What does that mean anyway?”
He looked poleaxed. Like me in third grade when my teacher, Miss Ludwig, had just called on me to answer a question in class when I wasn’t
paying attention (which was often). I think he was kind of
afraid he might give the wrong answer, and it would go on his PERMANENT RECORD
(said with a loud voice and an echo).
“Um… I never thought
about it. It’s just my standard
greeting.”
“Ok, just thought I’d
ask. I hear it so much I figure someone
has to know.”
I kept asking people.
No one had an answer. I filed it
in the back room of my brain (it’s getting pretty cluttered back there – too
many unanswered questions, like: Why is there an ‘S’ in the word ‘lisp’).
Then I discovered a few years ago that I started to dream
differently than I used to.
It used to be that, like most people, I would have a dream
and wake up in befuddlement thinking the dream was true for a few moments. I would usually feel a sense of relief that
the dream was in fact not happening.
Most of my dreams were, at the least, confusing.
Things changed a while back though. I developed an awareness of my dreams. I will be in the middle of a dream and
realize that I am in fact having a dream, and I become more of an observer than
a participant. I find myself often
telling someone in the dream, “This is just a dream. I’m going to wake up now.”
Sometimes if it’s a particularly bad dream I’ll yell at
myself. “NO! NO! NO! THIS IS JUST A DREAM! WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!”
There was a time in my life when I was unaware of all
this. My dreams were an escape, and
sometimes a refuge. Someplace to drift
along without a care regardless of whether they were good or bad dreams. They offered variety if nothing else.
When I understood the difference in my dreams I discovered
something else.
I no longer need the escape.
Now, when I realize I’m in the dream, I have found that my
most fervent desire is to wake up. Not
because I don’t like the dream. The
quality of the dream is irrelevant.
With all the good and the bad that happens in the world
today I still find that my life is a wonderful gift. It is no longer necessary for me to escape
reality. When I realize I’m in the dream I claw my way to wakefulness. I strive to reach daylight so I can live my
life another day!
Want to know why? I
want to wake up because my life now is better
than my dreams! I wake up next to a
wonderful, beautiful woman. I wake up
knowing that my kids and grandkids and the rest of my family are still out there,
and they love me!
I am living the dream!
I now find that I am reluctant to sleep.
It wasn’t easy to get where I am – ohh no! I know there’s a lot of you out there who
struggle through daily existence. I get
it. I’ve been there. Sometimes you feel like you pay a price for
living. Sometimes you realize that you
still have to deal with some nightmare people.
I discovered that Forgiveness – both given and received – is the
greatest harbinger of peace that has ever been, and I have discovered that I
need to pursue it daily.
Some days hope is harder to come by than others, but I want
you to know that Joy is still possible. Every
day is different, and somewhere down the road daylight is still there waiting
to greet you.
“- Joy comes in the morning” Psalm 30:5
©Dan Bode 2017
