Star light, star bright,
First start I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Upon this star I see tonight.

There was always something so magical about seeing the first star in the sky at dusk when I was younger.  And if even you saw the first star and made a wish, it wasn’t two seconds later that you saw another star.  And then another… and then another!  When I was in Eleuthera two summers ago for a mission trip with our high school students from church, I remember going out to the beach one night with several of them and just looking up.  It wasn’t that we saw just a few stars and a few more came out as we watched… it was that HUNDREDS and then THOUSANDS came out.  I’ve been looking up at the stars for most of my life and I have NEVER seen as many stars as I did when we were on that little island in the Bahamas.  And we weren’t making silly little wishes anymore, we were being confronted with the creativity of the Creator of the Milky Way!  Just thinking about those stars still takes my breath away.

My wishes have changed as I’ve gotten older, experienced life, had disappointments and failed time and (seemingly) time again.  Most of my wishes these days consist of dreams for our family and for this business.  But, when I start to wish and start to dream, I also can’t help but think about what it would mean should those wishes actually come true.  It would mean not just more shooting and more time behind my camera, but more emails, more blogs, more book keeping… more taxes… and that’s when I get scared and start to back off.  But why would I want to do that??  Why wouldn’t I want to push myself and learn all that I can about EVERY aspect of running a business?  Why wouldn’t I want to stretch myself and dream a little bigger?  Do I stop putting things on my wish list and stop dreaming because of fear??  Sometimes I do.  And then I find that I’m miserable.

Someone once pointed out to me that fear and faith have the same definition… they’re both the anticipation of something that has yet to happen.  So why choose fear??  Why let something that hasn’t happened yet keep us from pursuing what we are wishing for??  I’m not saying it’s easy to have faith… sometimes it’s really difficult.  And even in times when we do step out in faith, we may fall flat on our faces (which I have done PLENTY of times).  But I get back up (sometimes with the help of others or only by the grace of God) and I try again… only this time I’m stronger and more prepared for what’s in front of me.

So… make a wish.  Put that dream of yours onto your wish list and step out in faith.  And if you see a dandelion, pick it up and make a wish.  It can’t hurt, right? :-)