My friend e-mailed me: “Did you make your list? You know– your list of desires for the coming year? Five things. Now don’t forget!”

From across the miles I could see my friend’s stern expression urging me. She punctuated her message with testimony of dreams having come true and with the quote:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. – Henry David Thoreau.

Five things? Oh, honey, I want it All!

Now, to be clear, this is a list of wishes and wants, dreams and desires. This is not a resolutions list. Resolutions are things one thinks one should accomplish or be, and these without fail originate somewhere outside of us from others and society in general. There are no shoulds on the list of dreams and desires. This list is from the deep small voice within and is our very own.

I generally make my List of Desires and then tuck it away so thoroughly as to not remember what I did with it. I never even remember what I wrote, or even quite if I wrote, so how can I see if any of The List came true?

This morning, however, I had the good fortune to find my list from last year. I happened to think to look in a small journal I keep beside my meditation chair. Guess what? This journal turns out to be a depository of lists of dreams and desires and prayers from the past couple of years.

As I perused my listings, I could see that quite a number of dreams and desires had or were actually coming true. I had gotten my bedroom closet cleaned and organized, and a wounded relationship with one person had been healed far beyond my dreams, and certainly I had grown and progressed in the areas of faith and strength of spirit and purpose. I had not gotten the new living room rug I desired, but I no longer cared, and my interest in learning calligraphy had waned, so those were desires had been answered.

Then there were the things that had not come about and which I still desire: my craft room has not been cleaned, nor has my office. Far more important, a major desire that has not come about is a new home near my son and grandson, the home of my dreams.

Some things take time. Some things, in order to be all that we desire, must come in the right time. I think of the writer Marjorie Holmes. Years ago her book, Two For Gallilee, waited around for ten years and the manuscript served as booster seat for her youngest, before it was accepted by a publisher and wound up on the New York Times bestseller list. Had it been published when she so desired, would that have happened?

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Making The List of our dreams is the beginning. It is the first step daring to advance in the direction we want to go. Making The List is the way we break through the fears and the shoulds and the unworthiness. Making The List is daring to see ourselves honestly and to believe and actively trust that we are lead on a good and right path for us. It is faith in action. It is to listen and cooperate with the still small voice of God, who is always whispering, “Grow, I love you.”