Broken Dreams and Shattered Realities

Wow. Have you ever been SO close to something and you just couldn’t get it? I mean, it’s *so* close that you can feel it; the scent is tickling your nostrils, the excitement wells up like a hurricane inside. But it teases you while keeping its distance enough to run up and flaunt it in your face and then run away, before you can catch it, with a maniacal laughter that is purely gut-wrenching. Have you ever felt that?

Now, take that same scenario and make the evasive feeling something you *REALLY* want. Something that you whole-heartedly desire. Something that’s only in your dreams. Have you ever felt that?

I guess dancing in a moonlit glade on mossy grass by a babbling brook is only a dream. I fear twirling gracefully in a pure white gown to a soft, yet exciting, ditty is nothing but un-earthly magic. I suppose having a merry time with faeries and nymphs and dryads while skipping around in circles in our bare feet is impossible. I must then assume, I’m afraid, that dreams are only meant to be dreams, and nothing more.

No, I can’t say that. I still live by pixie dust and wishing on falling stars. I still trust in that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and in the castle waiting for me on the horizon. I still know deep in my heart that my Prince will come rescue me from the dragon and carry me away on his valiant steed. I still believe in faeries and magic, and I know that in Neverland I will never grow old, and I remember how to get there now too! I still know that somewhere over the rainbow is a land that I heard of once in a lullaby, and that my Fairy Godmother will save the day. Dreams still come true. They *have* to.

But if they do, how come I’m sitting in that moonlit glade right now? Why is there a stream running a few feet away, and mossy grass beneath my flip-flop covered feet? Why are the birds and the crickets and the bees playing a tune just for me to dance to in my jeans and t-shirt? Why do the stars in the sky shed *just* enough light to set the mood and the fresh forest scent lets out *just* enough smell to entice all who notice to start a dream? Why does there have to be a cougar warning out so that I can’t go off alone because I know Prince Charming can’t come rescue me?...

Sometimes life just isn’t fair. This would be one of those times. But I guess, as they say: “For everything else, there’s Walgreens.”