I dreamed a dream in time gone by

I'm supposed to be writing on a Thoreau quote: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined."

Here's the deal. That quote sounds so, oh I don't know, full of ambition and intensity. Me? Not so ambitious and intense. Not even slightly ambitious and intense.

When I was young I imagined being a mother. A thinner mother. A more patient mother. A better mother. But nothing beyond that.

In the daily blur of nighttime feedings, pots of strong coffee, laundry, oatmeal making, bathing, and washing, and diaper changing, imagination has fallen by.