In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. Daniel 7:1-2 (NKJV)
I’ve had a few dreams in my lifetime. The most memorable recurring dream is where I’m at my Papaw’s house and there’s a fish fry. Though it is recurring, it’s like one of those choose your own ending books with a constantly changing conclusion.
The dream is weirdly satisfying, except that the house simultaneously is and is not my Papaw’s house, and everyone I’ve ever met is there, and I never get to eat the fish or the hushpuppies with the huge chunks of corn on the inside.
(No, I cannot explain that.)
Sometimes, I dream about bears. Sometimes, I dream about my old elementary school. Sometimes, I dream I can’t move my body even though a Dark Thing is coming, or has already arrived. Sometimes, I dream I fly. I think those are my favorites.
Alas, at some point, I must join the land of the living and the awake.
In that land, my dreams are slippery little dudes, like the mercury from the thermometer I broke when I was a child. I’ll remember a drip here, a drop there. I’ll remember the end and try to tell it, then realize the middle or the beginning and have to tell the thing backwards. By that time, the dream has faded like a sheet, so often washed and hung in the sun I can’t tell if the little flowers in the pattern are pink or blue or yellow.
My dreams of writing seem just as slippery as my dreams in sleep. To hold onto the writerly things, I need focus and determination and knowledge and encouragement. I need to write. I need what Daniel had in chapter seven: the dream, and a way to write it good.
… Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. (v. 2)
Daniel had a dream.
Beastly things came.
Bad things happened.
Then, God showed up.
As smart as Daniel was (see Dan. 1:17), he still needed help with his dream.
I came near to one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. Daniel 7:16 (NKJV)
If a man as qualified as Daniel needed help, then it’s okay to need help, too. I find my help at writer’s conferences, critique groups, online and in-person communities. I find that one who is standing near; that one who knows the truth of writerly things, then I lean in to listen and to learn.
This June, I will lean in once again at the 2019 Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. I’m not content with letting my writing dream slip away. I want to write, and I want to write real good.
Come join me. Together, we can dream a little dream.
Kristy Horine, KCWC Publicity Chair
Visit Kristy’s website at: https://kristyhorine.com/
