Hopes and Dreams.

"Pay attention to your dreams - God's angels often speak directly to our hearts when we are asleep." ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

Dreams are a powerful. There are a thousand thoughts, quotes and ideas all on the power of a dream.

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. From the downright bizarre to the wonderfully exciting and positively scary! We don't really know where dreams come from or what influences them. I once saw a bizarre French film called "La science des rêves" (The Science of Dreams). That's fairly irrelevant!

What I was really thinking about is the "conscious dreams", the dreams we have for our lives, our future. What is it that if time, age and money were no object we would like to do? Recently in the news we heard of Ben Southall who has just recently won a "dream job" as an "Island caretaker", earning £73,500 for 6 months (ish). This does sound like a dream job to me. However every single person's hopes and dreams are different and some people have no dreams at all!
I regularly ask people at work random questions. Usually along the lines of "If I gave you a plane ticket right now where would you most like to go?" This makes people think of their "dream holiday". There are so many categories for dreams: Job, holiday, wife, car etc. But I like to know what people would love to do.

I recently was privileged enough to have a helicopter lesson. My life checklist has had both, go in a helicopter and fly a helicopter, so being able to check both of them off at the same time was fantastic. I would LOVE to become a helicopter pilot. I have flown fixed wing aircraft quite a few times and it is much easier and nowhere near as exciting (except for the loops and barrel rolls) as flying a helicopter. Becoming a pilot however involves a large amount of money that I just don't have. However it is still a dream. An even bigger dream on a the same line is becoming a commercial pilot (not airline pilot, still with the helicopters) There are so many different "types" of pilot, police, ambulance, personal pilot, coast guard etc etc. Any of these would suit me! For some time now I've thought that I'm not entirely meant for the normal 9-5 type job. I want something a little different. Flying sounds different! I worked out (in a brief lull at work) that if I borrowed £1 a day off people then I would have the money to become a pilot in 41 years and 35 days. If I wanted to get my commercial license that would take me 95 years 325 days. Hmm not ideal. The pilot who taught me last weekend said he remortgaged his house! Basically unless a miracle happened it's not likely I'm going to become a pilot anytime soon which saddens me a little. But getting back to what I meant to is that dreams are meant to be held on to.

Just because I can't realise my dream today, or tomorrow doesn't mean I should leave it to disappear. Here's the kicker, Edward Kennedy said "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die." If we want something we must hold onto it. It often breaks my heart to hear that people have no dreams or aspirations. That they just intend on plodding along and the thing is that they don't know there's more out there.
There's obviously a spiritual twist to this about hope. But I shall let you create that yourself I'm happy for the moment just spieling about dreams.
I would be fascinated to know what dreams you have, what things you would love to do/see/visit if you were given the opportunity. Please tweet me/text me/email me.

Going back to the first quote in this post, I am confident that God gives us many of the dreams we have, he gives them to us for a reason. Don't let go of them because they may feel unattainable. God has a plan.
So much more to write as new thoughts pop into my head but is my bed time! Maybe I shall post again soon.

Done for now.

A trip away?

A little bit of the past then a hope for the future.

Approximately the first 18 months of my life were spent in Africa. Malawi to be more precise. Blantyre to be even more precise. My father was working for PwC (Then just the Pw bit!). And so as an entire family, the five of us, lived out there. (The rest of the family for longer before I was born, they then came back to England, I was born, then we went straight back out!) Sadly due to my age I have no recollection of this place. However looking through old and rather embarrassing photo albums and the wonderful opportunity to know my Godmother Anne Scarborough and know her work with the Nchima Trust. I have been able to have a taste of what it was like. Not through visiting but through photos and stories etc.

This is a batique from Africa that my father had in his office for many years, that I now have in my living room in Newmarket:


This place has always had a special place in my life. I'm not entirely sure why. Partly because it makes an interesting story (living in Africa, despite not remembering it!), also it often turns up on the news because of the devastating poverty and high levels of AIDS. It has also recently come up with the whole Madonna saga!

I have always had a desire to go there.

When we lived there (so the story goes) I had a nanny called Ruth. I pretty much lived on her back for the entirety of our time out there. She looked after me, bathed me, played with me, took me places etc. All the things a nanny should do. There are apparently very few photos of me and her together, I have been told the reason for this is because as a child I was very white! I had very white hair and very white skin. (Macdonald trait. We don't tan well!) However Ruth was as black as they come (not in a racist way!). Thus trying to get the exposure right in photos of us both rarely worked! Because if she looked normal I would be super white and over exposed, and if I looked normal she would be underexposed and you couldn't see anything but her teeth and eyes! Anyway! I don't remember her, much to my sadness. However I want to. I have always wanted to head back and visit the places I have visited before but have no recollection of. Africa is a place that strikes a chord with me when I hear about the things that are going on. It is also an incredibly beautiful place. Here's a word. Juxtaposition!

For a while I have contemplated how or when I should go back. I feel the time is coming. Largely because I want to see Ruth before she dies (the average age of an adult is about 45) thus she may be dead already. But I don't think I want to go back there just for a holiday. I want to go and help. I want to do something, be a part of something that makes a difference (isn't that many people's cry for their lives!) Basically I want to go on some mission/aid trip. But have the opportunity to see some of the people that made my family welcome. I asked my Godmother if the Nchima trust do trips but they don't really do that sort of thing. But I would like to find something.

I have lots to accomplish before I settle down into a normal job (if that's what God calls me to! (I'm kinda hoping it's not! :P)) This is one of them.
I also hope my dearest will come with me. It's something we've talked about. Africa comes up in our conversations from time to time, and I know she knows how important it is to me. And I also know she wants to do a mission trip too. So maybe this will happen. Hopefully very soon after uni. It needs prayer. It needs planning. But I believe God puts desires on our heart for a reason.

Done for now.