There is a thief among us. I fell victim. Yes. Taken! Before I even knew it. All I had accumulated over the years. It didn’t come easily for me. I struggled with doubt and apprehension for years to get to that point. And what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was gone! There I was. Sitting in my favorite chair, wondering, what happened? How did this happen to ME? I was the positive one. (People tell me all the time, “positive Brenda”, “smiling Brenda”-honest!) So I was not supposed to be victim, but I was. And there I sat, feeling lifeless and had to look like I still had it all together! But how? The thief came without warning. and took it all! All the dreams I had laid out for myself. All the dreams my Mom said she wanted me to do before she died. All the dreams I promised I would accomplish. All the dreams I set. They were specific. Dates. Reasons for havin’ em. Causes connected to ‘em. Giving back at the core of each of them. So why? How could this happen.
Right about here I’m supposed to say I prayed and then a miracle happened and life was all better again, but that’s not the case. First, I got pissed! Oops. I got angry. And I was tempted to have it out with God! After all He said it was okay to dream. Permission given directly from HIM! And He added, “Dream BIG!” And now look what happened! Okay, think. What shall I do? Next, I cried. Not one of those, nice, cute, tear or two down the cheek kinda’ cries. This was a sobber! A pillowcase soaker! A mascara-completely-off-kinda’ look. You get the picture. And then I did what I always come back to and what I could have saved a lot of time by doing in the first place. I just prayed and asked for help because I didn’t know where to turn to get my dreams back.
Guess what? They are back. And they are bigger than ever! And I found the thief. And that’s why I want to warn you. There’s more than one. They are out there. They are among us. They are not getting arrested. They are the people who don’t look you in the eye but look past you, at work. They are the neighbors always speaking badly about another neighbor. They are fellow parishioners always complaining about service or service providers or fellow parishioners. They are the people who cross your path on a daily basis with complaints always, pains-always, trying to steal your joy always. And they are so sneaky. They creep into your subconscious and your very being so easily before you even know it, you have joined in and become part of the conversation of destruction. I can only say after coming out on the other side…having survived…having my dreams back!…Warning! You could be next!