Any Dream Will Do?

When I was in Kenya I spent most weekends in the swimming pool. I love swimming and I always have done and one thing that I have always wanted to do is to be a synchronised swimmer. My mum and dad used to call me a little dolphin because you would rarely see my head above water, I was forever doing handstands and rolls and flips and holding my breath for as long as I could. A couple joined us in Kenya for about a month, Lorna and Ken. Lorna would tell me how I should grab every opportunity and not let something pass because I didn't have the time - if I wanted to do synchronised swimming I should look to find my nearest group and join in! Good advice perhaps. The only problem is that there just is no time to do everything that I would like to do! When I get to be 70 and I look back on my life and think of all the things I didn't get the chance to do, will I be sad at what I have missed out on? Or do we ultimately have to choose just a couple of things that we really enjoy and do them well?

I love to sing, I love to perform. At university I played a part in an amateur dramatics performance of Godspell. I absolutely loved it, after a weekend of performances it was all over and 2 months of rehearsals had come to their conclusion. What a dream it would be to sing and dance and act in a musical...

I love to sing. At university I was a member of 2 college based choirs and the thrill of rehearsing and perfecting a piece of music as a group then to perform it in a church or a cathedral or a chapel was so rewarding. I have happily continued to sing in choirs since leaving college and thoroughly enjoyed my current choir's performance of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man just before Christmas. Next year I hope to join a huge number of people from choral societies across the country to perfom the whole work at the Albert Hall. Now that is a dream come true!

I find history fascinating. I studied it at university along with teacher training but really miss studying it now that I am working. I have always been fascinated by Time Team and archaeology and even researched the possibility of studying archaeology through the Open University last year before I got my current job. I doubt I would ever have got so far as applying but it certainly crossed my mind!

Yesterday I was looking at the books on my shelves in my bedroom at my parent's house and took down a book called Krabat by Otfried Preussler. I won it as a prize for throwing myself fully into my German exchange trip when I was at high school. I began to read it, but much like children who choose books that are beyond their vocabulary range, I soon became tired and put it back down. I would love to study German again, go to Germany and get to grips with the language properly, something I never managed to achieve at A Level.

I love church and I love God and I love telling children and adults alike stories from the Bible and helping to make them come to life. How often do I sit in church, itching to get involved more, reading, singing, preaching. It would give me great joy to learn how do get better involved and to be involved officially.

But finally I love children and I love teaching. And that is what I do for a living and, for the moment, what I adore doing.

How is it possible to do all the many things that I would dream to do? Or yet do I combine all the things that I enjoy best in a job that I can do well and put my heart and my soul into it.