This is my DREAM: me and my team doing chores taking care of the farm. Fantasy: I am fearless and capable, out on the farm driving my horses in a permaculture paradise. The farm is neat and organized, you can find anything because everything is in it's place and a place for everything. I am good with power tools and can dig post holes or throw bales all day long.
Reality: I get tired, and I am sore the next day. I get sawdust in my eyes and regularly cut myself, mis-measure the things I am cutting or get confused about how they should go together. My horses are super-spoiled and don't always listen and because I don't use them enough they are antsy-pantsy when they should be calm and well behaved. I don't have the equipment to use them regularly and sometimes they intimidate me. I regularly can't find things because I don't remember where I laid them down.
Whoa, when reality meets my fantasy visions it's a head on collision with casualties! But I can sift the wreckage and look to see what should survive the collision and what should be allowed to fade away.
My farm plan for this spring is attempting to take into account that lots of dreaming and vision casting is good. Having big dreams can help us see beyond the ordinary to the extraordinary and move towards those things. However I can also lose sight of what I can actually achieve if I hang on bits and pieces of a fantasy that will never come to pass or whose time has past all together. Like the craft activities I wanted to do with the kids, uh-oh they are between 20-14 years, those crafts are never going to happen so I can let those things go and bless another family with young kids. You get the idea.
The Lord has a way of taking us down unexpected paths, while I always dreamed of a farm, I never thought it would really happen. Yet here I am and if I am going to be good steward of this opportunity I need to get real about my dream.