Dream little.

There's all this talk about the importance of dreaming big. I took a whole online class on the subject, in fact, and found it wonderfully inspiring. I just found a notebook for dreaming big - complete with three steps on how to get to the big dreams (I guess), and I was so lured by those gleaming words - "dream big" - that I felt that little buy it! click in my brain. It's the answer, my brain whispered at me. That's where your happiness is.

No. No no no no no.

I love the idea of dreaming big because I think it's important to inflate your concept of what is possible, to stretch the boundaries of possibility and explore them, and to take it further and step outside of them, just to see what happens when you do. That's where the excitement is, surely, and some would say the contentment is there, too.

But you can't live there.

Climb the shiny turrets as far as you can, take in the view from up there and appreciate the big picture for all it's worth. But don't live there.

I say: dream little. A dream is just a beautiful idea of what reality could be, and the thing is that a beautiful reality is always right in front of your face if you want it to be. Little is where you live. Little is what you are. Contentment is up there, but it's down here, too. It should be, anyway. Lift up a rock and look for it. Toss a pebble and watch it ripple across water. Feel it in the small hands of your children and the smell of coffee and butter melting on toast, in the sound of biting into an apple and the thump of your very own heart in your chest.

It takes time to build a home in the clouds, above the shiny turrets, just like it took time to build a home right where you are today. Who knows if the impossible is even attainable? Who cares? Take slow steps. Keep your eyes firmly ahead, even if you're climbing toward something. It's so easy to forget the beauty right in front of you if you're always reaching for something higher.