We thought our dreams would be fulfilling upon completion. This thinking had to be correct, right?

Once the art piece was delivered and the commission paid, all that had ever been imagined would become reality. The confetti would fall from the sky. The celebratory parade would last for hours concluding with a key granted to the big house right next to the ski lift with the trout stream just out the front door. Bank accounts would be fat, families safe, adoration thick, and the world served up as an oyster. This was a given outcome of dreams recognized, right?

Finally the day came, after years and years of overexerted effort hell bent determined to see the finish line, the dreams were boxed up and crated ready for shipping. The checks cleared and the account balances turned positive. The trucks arrived and the packages went out. Standing, all ready for the wave of contentment to flood over, greeted instead by a tsunami of emptiness.

It wasn’t that the desired outcomes weren’t recognized. Most all of them were except for maybe the “oyster” service. Dream, draw, redraft, refine, pour everything into it, deliver and receive really everything we set out to achieve only to find we weren’t even sighted on the target.

What happened then? Where was the turn missed? Did our desires lead us astray? How did we end up so wrong? Had someone sneaked into our heads and twisted our visions? This was the guaranteed path we had been told our entire lives. We just couldn’t be that far off from our guidance. Even, the very counselors that advised directions are standing nearby applauding. So, what’s the deal?

Had we undersold ourselves short? Had we been purchased on discounted layaway for a song and a dance to be paid still somewhere far off in the future? Are we the mix masters of an over dramatic symphonic that is totally missing the beat and rhythm of a completely different solo that is being hummed at a volume just below the noise of our cacophony?

What if our dreams aren’t meant to be focused on us?