Sadly, we often feel we just can't move on! It is the past fears that drag on and on, haunting us ...even in our subconscience. But even within the haunting experience, we can be renewed. This is the experience I had ...in my dream.

It was a different sort of dream, though it began with a common recurring theme. It involved a fear I commonly had years ago, from lack of preparation. Obviously, it is still lingering!

In my dream, a report was due. I had not even begun my report ...and it was already due! My friend, Pierre, handed me his report to look at. It was entitled, "Friendship." I was overwhelmed by the dedication and effort put into it. He must have put hours upon hours of work into it. I imagined the long days ...and weeks of tireless effort, striving towards not merely achieving a "good grade," but producing something that had great depth and meaning, beyond the skin.

During this precise moment of my dream, it was not just the fear of not personally being prepared. That fear was replaced by something other than fear ...by the turning of a page.

No longer was I overcome by my individual shortcomings, but by the accomplishment of one whose depth of friendship I had not fully realized.

The first half dozen pages were photocopies of a road. That road passed the delicate outstretched arms of a brilliant redbud. That road passed a concrete wall, with the rich aroma of deep purple lilacs bordering on the other side. That road passed a friendly old dog, sleeping within the cool comfortable shade of a birch tree. That road passed the home of my parents; a road my friend and I walked many a times, filled with meaningful conversation. At the time, I hadn't realized how meaningful ...until now, as I read Pierre's dedication, a testimony to our friendship.

At this moment, I was overcome with so many emotions. One of those emotions was regret, a common condition of life itself, that we live our life without full realization of what has always been there ...what is there now!