I have a dream....

Don't we all?  From the time I was a little kid, I can remember many dreams that I have had.  These dreams range from playing professional baseball and being the guy to hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to win game seven of the World Series for the Cleveland Indians (that dream never had a chance since I have never hit an over the fence home run - I have hit several in the park home runs- and the fact that the Cleveland Indians have not won a World series since 1948; we are not going to talk about the two melt downs in 1995 and 1997 - I am still mad at Jose Mesa for handing the Marlins that game),  to being a race car driver, or even being the president of the United States (8 more years and I am eligible to run - who is voting for me in 2020?).  Never did i dream of being a store manager of a Starbucks, living in Covington and having 2 daughters.  I don't think anyone actually accomplishes all the things they dream of as a child, but that doesn't mean we should stop dreaming.

As I mentioned above, I manage a Starbucks Coffee in Mandeville, LA.  While it is not the job I dreamed of as a child (I don't even like the taste of coffee - its like owning a bar and not drinking, ironic I know), it is a great job and great company to work for.  Recently, Starbucks has gone through a "re-branding" and there has been a major redefining of my position as Store Manager.  Just as much as serving a great cup of Joe, my job is to inspire my baristas to do great work.  Part of the way that I do that is to put inspirational quotes on my communication board to get everyone to think and respond in a positive manner.  This week I posted a quote that has stirred a lot of conversations - which is saying something considering I also posted a quote by Tupac Shakur.  The quote is a Chinese Proverb that says "I have dreamed a thousand new paths, but I woke and walked my old one."  

At first this seemed not to be the inspirational item I was looking for, but the more I have thought about it I realized something.  Sometimes our dreams are a little outlandish - i.e. the 9th inning home run to win the World series, but life often has a way of turning "the same old path" into new and better dreams.  As a child, I dreamed of being a husband and father, but never the father of two girls.  Like most guys, I always thought I would have 2 boys - 2 little baseball or football stars that would be the superior athletes that would be drafted in 2 sports, make a boat load of money and be able to put me in a nice retirement home, but ultimately carry on the family name (maybe I reached into the outlandish there) - or at least have a son first and a daughter second, so that my son could be the big brother and protect my daughter.  But life had a way of making sure that did not happen.  I married Janel, dream come true, who's family has a history of only girls (Morgan and Madison have about 8 cousins on Janel's side - only 1 boy), and we obviously have two beautiful girls.  

This may not have been one of my thousand dreams, but I would never trade what I have now for even one of those dreams.  Janel, Morgan, and Madison are the most precious things I have in my life and I could never dream of life without them.  My girls may never play professional ball or even be able to put me in a nice retirement home, but I love them with everything I am - I just hope I don't have to bust out my shovel and bag of lye on some guy trying to woo them away from me.  

So even though I never went on a different path to chase some pipe dream of mine, life had a way of making my reality exactly what I wanted.  A couple of posts ago, I wrote about perspective, and that seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life over the last couple of weeks.  Dreams are great and fun to remember but reality is so much better.