Oh, But What If?

Oh, what can change in a year, what the future can hold if we only dare to dream.

It’s funny how one simple thought — a hypothetical “what if?” — can find its way inside your brain, take residency deep in your mind, and pester you at will. Thoughts are relentless and beautiful beasts. Thoughts have a way of overcoming you, just at the moment you begin to grow content.

It seems every few years, my life changes; or rather, I change my life. I chase something, I scratch my itch, I nest for a bit to catch my breath, and then start over again. Cycle, cycle, cycle. Propelling me forward just when I start settling, like a steady, never-ending tide.

Lately, I feel like I’m at the water’s edge once again, awaiting and welcoming this wave to sweep me off my feet — and I don’t want it to stop; I welcome the wave.

A thought has overcome me recently that I can’t quite shake. Late into the night and early in the morning, I lie awake, my mind drifting and dreaming of more. Each day I wake up with a head full ideas and by the time I go to bed, there are more, and there are less, and there are edits made. I’m not yet sure what it means, but I feel like I’m on the precipice of being swallowed by the ocean; by a wave that will carry me away to an even greater place. And yes, this wave could also pull me under, but the hope for the former is too powerful to run from.

What if life could be even better than it already is? That thought is intoxicating. That thought haunts me.

What if we all dared to dream? What if we then pursued that dream? What if we threw our fears aside and welcomed the unknown? 

What if?