Today is Yesterday's Dream

"Are you doing a good job?"

I could only faintly hear her over the roar of the music.

A friend was visiting. One of his favorite bands was playing at one of the most awe-inspiring music venues in the world, Red Rock's Amphitheater.

Naturally, we had to go and now I'm confronted by this bright eyed stranger holding a piece of paper with different splotches of color as she awaited my response.

"Yes I am."

I said as my eyes fixated on this mystery material. It was not LSD.

No, she was in possession of a large quantity of childhood nostalgia bombs.

This piece of paper was filled with stickers. She peeled one off and placed it on my jacket.

Mine happened to be a soft pretzel.

"Thank you." I grinned as ancient memories of elementary school flowed back into my brain.

I had not been rewarded with a sticker for many years. Had completely forgotten about that practice.

It caused me to reflect on how stingy we can be towards our progress and accomplishments as we age.

Adulthood is mostly devoid of gold stars and pretzel stickers. I suspect this has something to do with the feeling of endlessly climbing the mountain of success. Celebration is too much of an indulgence when there is still so much more work to be done to reach "the top."

But I'm going to carve out a brief window of time today to remind you of all the stickers you never received.

There's a lot you've accomplished. Think about the last 10 years. What you've overcome and what you've created. There are past versions of you that would be ecstatic to realize how thing have come to fruition. How the hell did you pull that off?

You're living in yesterday's dream. Don't be too tied up in tomorrow's possibility that you are unable to truly appreciate it.

See the invisible.

Your Friend,

Mike

P.S. This isn't to say that things haven't gotten worse or more difficult for you in certain ways over the last 10 years. But you're already well aware of that. They scream out in our consciousness. The dreams we've realized are easier to ignore and that's why I'm calling attention to them. Appreciate the dreams you've realized.