The Dream

My Two Worlds Come Together

Have you had dreams that wake you up in a sweat? Frightened? When you need time to get oriented to the reality that it was only a dream? Those dreams can linger, causing you to wonder what was going on that brought the dream in the first place. Or maybe it was a joyful dream that left you unhappy that it was only a dream. You not only wanted to linger in sleep but for the dream to be real.

Let me tell you about a dream, a most delightful dream. O, how I wanted it to be true! The timing was while I was in seminary and training in spiritual direction — reading, practicing, being critiqued by a professor/director. I was really into it. As I have written in the past, tennis has been a big part of my life — playing, teaching and promoting. The dream brought the two worlds together in an exciting way. You may remember Martina Navratilova the Czech-American professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, the most in the Open Era, the time since 1968 when amateurs and professionals competed together. I had watched Martina play at the U.S. Open. I saw and read about the entourage surrounding her, which could include tour officials, publicists, coaches, parents, girlfriends, a clothes designer, a hair stylist, masseuses, racket-stringers. She was making the money and could afford to have a wide range of assistants with her on her globe-trotting tournament stops. She was missing one expert in her entourage that she didn’t know she was missing.

I woke up. I woke my wife up. “My worlds have come together. Martina has hired me to be her spiritual director. I will be available to her at selected tournaments. Probably the Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S Open. Those events, the majors, are the most stressful and I would be available for inner guidance.” I used the word inner, being aware of The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey, who wrote on the mental part of the game. I brought the additional dimension of spirituality into the game.

My wife said, “Go back to sleep.” O how I wanted my dream to be true! A shitkicker from Indiana with deep interest in tennis and spirituality coming together with an all-time great player. This was a life completing combination. How could I sleep?

Later I wrote to Martina via her management company and agent to share the dream. How I hope she enjoyed the dream. She never hired me.