Dreaming life away.

In the first book of the Harry Potter series, Harry is sneaking around his boarding school very late one evening. He stumbles into a deserted corridor, and ends up finding a tall, full-body length mirror in an empty room.

He is immediately intrigued. When he peers into the mirror, he sees his parents (who, if you're unfamiliar with the story, died when he was a young boy). Harry runs back to his dormitory to wake his friend Ron. When Ron peers into the mirror, he sees a very handsome version of himself as Captain of the Quiditch team and head 'boy' at the school.

Later that week, Harry sneaks back into the room. The school's headmaster, Dumbledore, finds Harry gazing the mirror, at a scene that will never come to pass. Dumbledore explains:

As you've figured out by now, this mirror shows the deepest, truest desires of one's heart. The mirror does not give knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away in front of it, even gone mad. Tomorrow it will be moved, and I must ask you not to go looking for it again. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

I was so struck by this scene. While I don't have a mirror like Harry, there are influences like family, society and pursuit of the American dream that lure me to dream wistfully about things I don't have, but desperately need. A bigger savings account. A new car. A significant other in my life.

Sometimes it's hard to ignore these things. They certainly aren't bad. But wanting them more than I want anything else isn't good. When I sit down and honestly reflect about my life, I find myself wondering why I waste time like Harry did, staring into that mirror. There's a life to live!