Some Dreams

I've been at RUF Staff Training in Atlanta all week, got home late on Friday night, took most of yesterday to recover. Before that my roommate and I were moving into our new place. Needless to say, there's been little progression on my novel over the past two weeks. But as I was thinking about resuming my writing, I thought of a few current dreams that I would share with you.

Dream #1 - owning a really good camera and exploring God's creation through it's lens. Now, I think that it's valid to just enjoy the world God has created, in all of its beauty and expansiveness, and though I know that there is a sense in which a picture can never compare to the real deal, there is something to the way my own brain works that loves to take pictures and to see the reminder of God as creator in those pictures.

Dream #2 - finishing my novel. And then writing another novel. And another. You get the idea. I seem to process ideas through story. I know that this is the new buzz word, the new postmodern ideal is narrative, but I have been writing since I was six. I'm still developing my philosophy of creativity (number one, glorify God and enjoy him; number two, reflect reality but with an awareness of the supernatural and the beauty that is God given).

Dream #3 - actually reading the books that I own. There are days when I feel a lot of guilt for the number of books I own, and while I have gotten rid of some of the less important books in my collections, I also have been thinking about the need to actually use the books I own for their purpose - that is, to read them. Read them! Go figure. Some books I hope to read over the course of the next few months?
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
The Maltese Falcon by Dashell Hammett
One Hundered Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Longing to Know by Esther Meek
The Complete Short Stories by Flannery O'Connor (need to finish)
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, I have read it before, but I would like to read it again).
Promiscuities by Naomi Wolf

Dream #4 - cooking a real meal once a day. Right now, that seems cost and time prohibitive, but it is a long term goal. I love to cook. I love to take food from its raw components to a beautiful, colorful, flavorful, aromatic plate. Yum!

Dream #5 - running to lose weight. That's a risky thing to say out loud, but of late I've realized that now is the time to really take off the weight. I'm slowly beginning the journey... let's see how it goes.