It’s date night, and in a surprising twist, Drew and I are both reading. The timer set for 15 minute increments. And when the Model-T’s “Oogaa Oogaaahhhh!!” blows on his iTouch, I laugh, demand that he change the alarm-tone, get over it, and begin a few minutes of sharing what we’ve read so far.

This whole Reading-During-Date-Night-Thing is a bit out of our normal routine, but it’s working for two reasons: 1) we are fostering communication and curiosity and compassion for one another using “Hey, tell me about what you’re reading” as the backdrop, and 2) I just dove into Mandy Steward’s latest book.

So when the Oogaaa sounds, I get to hear about Dragons and Fortune-Tellers (or something like that), and then I tell him about “Tomorrow’s Dreams Today.” And my reports to Drew go a little like this:

p. 8: I won’t spoil the story, but you need to know that when I read through this page, I got uncharacteristically teary. Then the second time I read it I couldn’t help but laugh. So Drew and I laughed. Then flowed the honesty about how it rubbed up against a recent dream-dying day I’d experienced. Beautifully, the Author-Mandy won’t let me sit in my dead dream. She says I have to figure it out. Flesh it out. Live it out. Drew said he liked “this girl” and how she thinks.

p. 14: After marking this page up and down with my own scribbles and underlines, I review things with Drew. We’ve reached her thesis concept, her aim to show us how she lives out her artist-dream in her present day realities. It shakes me. And he wants to know “what is this book about? Is it a memoir? Is it a story? What is it?” I used words like Artist and Faith and Journey and Parenthood and Responsibilities and Creativity but they didn’t feel complete. So I flipped ahead for future pages that would show where she was taking me (don’t tell Mandy). And I read some of the section titles and quotes and questions… And I felt words like Right Now and Plan and Challenge and No Excuses rise up. Oh boy. And that’s when Drew, with an ironic thrill in his voice, said she’s gonna beat me senseless. And yes I did that throw-my-head-back laughing, and resolved to tell you about the first 15 pages of what is becoming my new favorite book.

So I type all that out and then that dang Ooogaahhh starts up again and I read this post to him. And then hear more about the Dragons.

Enough typing. I need to get back to the dream-reading and question-answering and plan-making. And for my people, the artist/creative/dreamer types? Y’all might wanna do your dream a favor and read this book. And please do tell me what you think of p. 8, mkay?

Grab it here.