Monday, February 13, 2012

Dreams and White Picket Fences



When I was younger I had a dream.  A naive dream perhaps, but a dream neither the less.  And it was my dream!   My dream  was:   I wanted a house with a white picket fence.  

I was thinking about dreams the other day.  Someone had challeged me to dream, to resurect old dreams, to remember unbirthed dreams.  I pondered on this turning it over in my mind.  I had a dream to write.  But I'm doing that here.  I had a dream to sing but I laughed about that.  I'm not really much of a singer.  But my husband reminded me of my Uncle who couldn't carry a tune in the proverbial bucket but he sang anyway.  He sang for the Lord and his pure love for God and  deep sincerity blessed many.  I would love to hear him sing again.  I'm sure he's singing in heaven.  But I think I will only sing for my grand baby and my children on my bus for now.  Well, maybe in my prayer time I will sing in worship and of course at church with the congregation.  But this didn't seem to be the dream that I could settle on.  That one dream that was really in need of being resurected.  

Then I hit on it!  I remembered my dream for a house with a white pickett fence.  As I thought about it I realized that it wasn't necessarily a literal picket  fence.  Oh, it may have been originally.  But with the advantage of age I can look back on it now and see it was a symbolic thing, this picket fence.  So I dug deeper and explored my memories.  Why?  What? Where? How?  Just what did this fence represent.  I was unprepared for the answer but very touched.  You see my Grandma died when I was 10 and as it would, it had a profound effect on me.  She was the most loving person I've ever known.  I remember after traveling the long 10-12 hour trip from Michigan back home to Tennessee.  There at the end waiting for me was Grandma Loftis' arms ready to embrace me into her soft tummy with a squeeze of love.  Undconditional love.  Love that came just because you were hers.  Belonging, Safety, Joy, Peace, Fun, Warmth,  all these and more were in that embrace.  And as I thought of the picket fence I realized that the fence embraced the home like Grandma Loftis' arms embraced me.  In my young mind her arms were welcoming, safe, warm and inviting.  Love was there.  It was a safe place.  Sanctuary.  

I explored the dream.  My mind goes to two different places here.  Home as a sanctuary and a person as a sanctuary.  And I'm not talking about a church sanctuary here but a safe place, a taking sanctuary from the wild and woolly world kind of place.  

 First let's look at a home with a picket fence.  A picket fence is sort of protective object.  Even though you can come in easily.  It is symbolic.  You have to pause a moment to decide to enter... to find the gate and enter.  You have to question.  Am I invited here?  or not?  Do I belong here?  It is a boundary.  It says this is "our" little piece of the world enter if invited.  I want my home to be warm, inviting, loving.  I'm working on it.  

But in the meantime.  My mind has wondered to the other place.  A person as a sanctuary.  My Grandma was this.  I long to be this.  I want to be a safe place with unconditional love and warmth.  I want to bring joy and peace and be fun.  I want to have a listening ear.  I want you to leave me feeling better than when you came.  I want you to feel you belong.. no rejection.  This is how I want to be.  Sometimes I am often I'm not.  I find the more time I spend with the Lord learning who I am in Him the more often I'm able to be more like I want to be even though I have a way to go.    But remember we are talking about a dream.  I'm dreaming and praying that I can be a white picket fence kind of woman and that my home can be a white picket fence kind of home.  It is my dream and I'm resurrecting  it.  And with God's help I know it will be a dream come true.  

2 comments:

  1. You ARE a sanctuary kind of girl, for sure!

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  2. Picket fences have a classic look that not only encloses your yard, offering privacy and safety, but also add beauty to your home. There are kits available to build a picket fence, but they're really not that hard to build from scratch.

    White Picket Fences

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