Winter skies are glorious… it always seems, on those days that it’s clear and that I can convince myself to go out and take a gander, to be distant and huge and filled with many more stars. Being in the desert this winter, where the sky really does go on forever, only reinforced that notion.

So if we’re going to hitch our dreams to a star, it’s a great idea to do it in the middle of winter. They’ll soar far higher and carry farther with those stars.

For the first time in many years, I’ve actually made a vision board. I work best in words rather than images, so mine’s pretty verbal. And since no one’s here to tell me that I’m doing it wrong because “working with words isn’t creative” as one workshop leader tried to convince me. And I’m working hard to narrow the focus and the scope of my vision down. Often my dreams get too big and I wind up missing the mark because there were too many components for one person to shepherd in a year. And as most for most of us, my dream needs to fit into the rest of my life.

Dreamers we may be, but we still want some balance in our lives. It’s not a stable Peace that consumes its dreamers. We need laughter and love, feasts and deep thinking — All those will make Peace richer.

I just looked at the weather, and around here at least, there are a lot of cloudy days before we get a good glimpse of the sky. But how about this: encourage everyone you know to walk outside on a cold and starry night and pick out a star on which to hang a dream of Peace. And then imagine an entire sky, filled with dreams of Peace. Makes it a bit easier to move forward with your dream, doesn’t it?