Listen to Nike

Today I was driving a friend of mine to a job interview in Sausalito. The weather was gorgeous and warm—the sky clear. As we descended upon the town, with the houses on the hill overlooking the bright blue water, she said, “It’s as if we were in Portofino.”

I agreed with her, and it was truly a moment to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of living in San Francisco. But I couldn’t sit oohing and ahhing for very long. I didn’t want us to be thinking about being in Italy, I wanted her to be thinking about being in New York. Quite the opposite, right? Wrong.

She has been dreaming of living in New York her whole life. Literally. She has a recurring dream where she is in a big city, surrounded by skyscrapers, people, and lights, and she has never felt more at home, or more alive. She told me this the last time I saw her, and I know that I won’t be able to let it alone.

Nothing moves me more than meeting people with unchased dreams.

I remember back to when I was a sophomore in college, and I said to my boyfriend at the time, ” What about your dreams, don’t you have any goals?” And he thought for a moment, stared back blankly at me, and then finally said no. I immediately wondered what the hell I was doing with him, or more why the hell I was calling him my boyfriend. Especially when he didn’t put out enough.

The point is, is that not everyone is a dreamer. Not everyone can hear a calling–that little voice inside them that whispers a direction, instills a curiosity, sheds light on a love. For those that do have this kind of guide, it is even that much harder to disregard whatever else is going on in life, whatever else everyone is telling you to do, and listen to it.

So for those of us who do hear it, and for those of us who are getting messages all the time whether in the shape of dreams, voices, or just an overall feeling in your gut—it is that much more important to listen, trust, have faith, and make the most of it. Dreams are the vehicles for gifts.

My friend is an artist. She could be a fashion designer, interior designer, jeweler, painter…commercial artist, seamstress, you name it. She makes the most lovely pieces of clothing, and then turns and upholsters a sofa. She can do anything with her hands. But instead of doing whatever she can to get to New York where she knows that she will feel the most at home she’s ever been in her life, instead of giving that a chance, she puts it on the two year plan. I could pull my hair out.

Once I took an unhappy man, a co-worker of a good friend of mine, to Baja. He had never had fish tacos. We drove the two hours down from San Diego, and the two hours back. During that time he told me how much he didn’t like where he was working, and a few months later when I talked to my good friend again, I heard that the man had left his job, moved and fallen in love. It’s a good recipe for those who are stuck…me, Baja, fish tacos and two hours to set you straight.

There’s nothing I like more than showing people how attainable their dreams really are. Well…except for fish tacos. And a good bank robbing scene in a movie. And bodysurfing on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Speaking of dreams…I need to get back to my list of things that are going to help me get to mine.