In Due Time

Oh my gosh. My heart is so full. This week I'm reminded "all things in due time." Many of you know this already because I've been posting about it on facebook, but I'm going to Italy in March! Going to Italy in and of itself is amazing, but this trip is even more so because of the confluence of events that brought it all together.

In 2005 I studied abroad in London and had a pretty horrible time. I won't go into it too much except to say the program I was with wasn't a good fit and I didn't like how a lot of things were handled. One of the biggest drawbacks was they penalized people for traveling. If you missed class you were required to write a paper. I traveled during my breaks and on a few long weekends but I didn't get to see as much as I wanted. Riding the tube one day I heard some tourists speaking Italian and in that moment I felt an ache in my chest to visit that country. Anytime someone said they were going to Italy, or had been to Italy, or just came back from Italy, my response was, "Awww. I wanna go to Italy so badly!"

I wasn't even sure why I wanted to go except that I did. I understood a little better after I went to Bruges, the "Venice of the North." While there I walked into a cathedral and saw Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child," which moved me to tears. I had no idea sculpture could do that. Could really be art. Most of the sculptures I saw were nice and all but none of them created an emotional response. I was so moved I decided I wanted to go to Florence to see more of Michelangelo's work but had no idea when it would happen.

This past week my boss asked me if I wanted to go to Vienna to cover a conference and my initial response was no because I am so tired. (I am really tired.) My friends suggested I take a week off afterward to travel around but even that didn't sound appealing because I hate traveling by myself. I wish I loved being independent and traveling solo but I don't. So I asked a friend who is teaching in France if she would be around/available and she said, actually she had vacation at that exact time! So within a week I booked my plane ticket and now I'm going to Italy. And my company is paying for the airfare. I feel extremely blessed and extremely graced. I am so touched by all of this because going to Italy has been an intense longing of mine for nearly seven years and now it's a reality.

My good friend has a quote: "Dreams may fade from view, dreams may be torn and bruised, but dreams never die." You know? They never do. So when they come true there is something really magical about it. It also makes me think my other dreams may come true. Maybe not in the way I wanted but they do indeed come true. So all I can say is to keep wishing, to keep hoping, to keep trying, and to seize the opportunity when it comes along.

I dream of a world where we believe our dreams really will come true. A world where we hold onto our end goal and not so much the "how" of it. A world where we know eventually we will be graced with our heart's desire. A world where we allow ourselves to know no dream is too out of reach. It may just take a while.

Another world is not only possible, it's probable.