Small Dream Saturdays: Entry 2

Hello Strangers,

This week I was reminded of an old dream of mine, one that’s seemed dead lately; not something impossible, but I’ve questioned it, its purpose. I want an RV. 

In the RV, I’d drive across the country, visiting our national parks, keeping a journal, blogging. When I was seventeen, I brought home a book about the history of space travel from NASA. I brought home books on underground cities, radium girls, weather patterns… And I dreamt of going out to find things out…I’m not even sure what. 

The “not being sure of what” is what bothers me, but those adventures aren’t the only reason I wanted the RV. In fact, the RV isn’t the dream (at least not a small one).

The Small Dream is the cupboards inside the RV.

I want to have a cabinet filled with every instant drink I can think of; coffee, cocoa, apple cider, teas, and syrups. I want another cabinet filled with instant bread mixes, ones that will keep for a while. Some pasta, some jarred sauce, some soup bases, some rice. Options. I want a collection of bowls, plates, and mugs. If I have guests, that’s where they’ll stay. If my friends come over and everything is wrong, I’ll have a hot drink and biscuits waiting for them. If I’m not there and there’s no fresh veggies, milk, and eggs in the fridge, people will still be able to eat. I’d have a cabinet filled with blankets and sweaters. There would be a shelf with a few books, a couple of notepads, some board games, some pens. 

Then when I continue to examine it, I find that the cupboards aren’t the real dream either. The real dream is my insatiable desire to meet beautiful, bizarre, flawed, exhausted strangers, and have something to offer them. Why else would someone’s RV dream include buying land, and parking it? Mine does, and it almost always has. A garden, a path, a fence, and full cupboards. 

This is why dreaming is important. Inspect your dreams, and you’ll find what it is you really, really want. If I can manage to dream again—because things have seemed really bleak lately—life will get exciting again.

Ask yourself, what do you dream about?

–Mabel