A big Pasadena Views welcome to Greg Richardson! Greg is the Strategic Monk, a spiritual director and leadership coach in Pasadena, California. Each year Greg hosts a Craft Brewery Pilgrimage in Southern California.

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I was reminded this week of how powerfully a dream can transport you through time.

I was in a store or at a gas station, and the background soundtrack started playing a Beach Boys song. I immediately traveled from an unseasonably warm January day in Southern California back to one of the Midwestern winter days of my childhood. I would spend hours in my room, with temperatures below zero outdoors, listening to Beach Boys songs about the endless summers of Southern California.

Listening to those songs was like watching the Tournament of Roses Parade on television each year. The beautiful sunshine, the floats covered in flowers, and the San Gabriel mountains in the background testified that there was a place where everything was not covered in snow and frigid weather. It seemed to me, then, like a magical place where anything might be possible.

Now I live in Pasadena, where I see the San Gabriel mountains every day.

I have lived several places since I grew up in Wisconsin, and visited even more. There are things I miss about those Midwestern winters, and Southern California is not always the magical place it seemed to be. But I am living that dream.

It is not quite the life I used to dream about. My days do not revolve around surfing and fun in the sun. I do, though, get to help fascinating people appreciate their own dreams, and find ways to make those dreams real.

What dream do you have? What reminds you of your dream?

Are you living your dream?

You can find Greg at StrategicMonk.com, at @StrategicMonk on Twitter, or contact him via email.