Dream “Venti”

Dream “Venti”

Always continue to fear the LORD. You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed.

Proverbs 23:17-18

We live in Seattle and so perhaps it follows naturally that I (Leslie) love coffee. Les doesn’t drink it, but he tells me I drink enough for both of us: “Venti,” still the largest cup for hot drinks, is not an uncommon order for me. Many of my thoughts about life, and even my prayers, have been scribbled on a napkin in the white space that forms the margins around the green-and-white Starbucks logo. That’s where I once wrote these words:

In these quiet moments

That form the margins of my life,

Sitting, sipping, breathing

My land-locked soul,

Freeing it to dive

Into the mysteries of the deep

Though I, like T.S. Eliot,

doubt the mermaids

will sing for me.

When ideas bubble up to the surface

Like the white rings from a scuba diver’s tank,

My heart is energized.

I dare

To dream Venti.

And I do. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about making a difference with my life, it’s that my difference-making is only limited by the size of my dreams.

And so is yours. That’s why we hope you dream big. We hope you talk to each other about your dreams—for your two lives but also the dreams you have for your relationship together. We hope you pray about them often. And when you do, we encourage you to dream Venti.

Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. . . . Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

—Henry David Thoreau