Dreaming Girl

Photo by Karina Vorozheeva on Unsplash

When I was first married, my husband and I bought an artist’s print of a young girl sitting with her legs pulled up so her chin rested on her knees, and her arms gently wrapped around her legs. The artist named the print Dreaming Girl because he surrounded her with pieces of her dream; images of a bird, a sea shell, a pink and yellow butterfly, and a tree with sun shining through its branches. Scattered around her he painted pastel colored stones and a soft blue feather.

I loved this picture from the first moment I saw it, and it gave me a sense of peace.

Years later when my divorce began, my attitude towards this picture changed. I wanted to shout at this girl, “Look up! Get up! Do Something! Terrible things will happen if you don’t pay attention to what is going on in your life.” I considered her extremely irresponsible and had absolutely no patience for her.

Time passed. The divorce was finalized. Life went on, and I realized that the girl in the picture had simply reflected my pain and fears back to me but had never wavered from what she had been created to do…which was to dream.

When we are struggling and feel certain we will never dream again, the girl within each of us waits patiently, for we, too, were created to dream and when we do, life opens up for us in simple, beautiful and unexpected ways.