Little Dreams

Little child

I know you.

Well no,

Correction

I don’t know you

But I know what you’re like.

You want the freedom of the little things.

Things like staying up late

Sleeping in

Playing until you’re tired

Never giving up an ounce of joy you can suck from this world.

And I wish I could tell you that you’d keep hoping those things.

Keep wishing for those things.

Keep clinging on to the little freedoms.

But you’re gonna grow up soon.

Soon you’re gonna have a thousand other little freedoms you want.

Freedoms slightly larger than the ones you want right now.

And then they will grow bigger

And bigger

And bigger

Until your little freedoms are a thousand miles high

Reaching for the stars

And always falling short.

You’re going to wish for month long vacations.

For never having to use money again.

For peace in countries you don’t quite know where they are.

Because the older you get

The more adjusted your eyes become

To the bleakness of the world.

Of all of the great things

That are so much larger than the tiny fist of yours.

Like walking into a dark room

You will slowly begin to realize the shapes and shadows

That this world is filled with.

And each time you realize something new

You’re going to let go of one of those original little freedoms.

And someday

Someday you will lose them all

And the things you will be wishing for

Are incapable of coming to you.

You will be separated by oceans of reality

Rather than the two parental units you have now.

And I wish I could beg you to hold onto them.

I wish I could tell you things would be so much better

 if you’d cling to nap times and lollipops and fields where you can run without falling.

Because it wouldn’t be better

But it would be easier.

So child as you grow

As you pick out slightly larger dreams and wishes

Please know this

It may be easier to be happy with the little things

But it is the dreaming big that makes it worth it.

It is the taste of unattainable unquenchable desire on your tongue

Mixing with the sour of reality and the sweet of your own existence

That will keep your motor running

Long enough to get to the edge of the ocean.

So child

As you cling now to your little freedoms

Do not be afraid to want greater ones in the future.

Sure it will hurt

It will hurt in ways you can’t imagine yet

But darling there is sweetness in that pain.