Rich Dixon is taking us upstream.

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I promised a fun backstory.

I wanted a cool-sounding Latin phrase. I asked a friend, principal of a big Catholic high school, if he knew someone who could help.

“How about a priest who does translation work at The Vatican Library?”

Yeah, that’ll work.

So Exordio Somnii – The Beginning Of The Dream – came from an email exchange with The Vatican.

Dreams take you to some cool places.

+ + +

Like the river, the precise beginning of a dream isn’t important if the dream leads in a direction worth following. But there’s some value in seeking the origin.

Perhaps something about the point of departure might help me understand what Jesus was up to.

+ + +

Exordio Somnii: March, 1999, twelve years post-injury.

I stared at the shiny new handcycle on the street in front of my house with a mixture of excitement, fear, and embarrassment. What was I thinking, letting these four guys to talk me into this craziness?

Well-meaning therapists and friends tried for years after the injury to engage me in alternative recreation. No interest in adaptive skiing, wheelchair basketball, or quad rugby. I was too busy being angry and afraid to acknowledge the obvious need, and my secret desire, for some sort of physical activity.

What made handcycling different? Maybe my encouragers simply wore me down until I got tired of saying “No.” In retrospect it seems like a precious instant, an answer to hundreds of prayers.

I sincerely believe God used the handcycle to finally guide me out of darkness and despair, but that perception crystallized farther downstream. At the time, I didn’t recognize a watershed moment, the birth of a life-altering passion. I didn’t identify this seemingly ordinary day as Exordio Somnii.

It certainly didn’t go like I expected.

To be continued…