Here is a question for you. How do you catch a unique rabbit? Give up? You-nique up on him. HA! That is my favorite joke of all time. It comes back to me on a regular basis. I have always enjoyed the wordplay with unique and you sneak. The thing, though, that has been more thought-provoking for me is just considering the unique rabbit. He intrigues me.

Rabbits are fun. We had one for several years. We all enjoyed his antics. He had so much personality. I would say about rabbits that they are definitely their own creatures. Maybe I am making it up in my own head, but our rabbit, Hareold, didn’t mince words. He made his wishes known and wore his feelings on his little furry sleeves. He communicated his feelings with thumping, hopping patterns around us, and flinging himself off the ground in joyful reckless abandon. He was his own rabbit. He was as unique as they come.

My Hubby Guy came pre-loaded with some great stories. One of my favorites is from his childhood. His grandparents lived in rural Iowa. When his family visited, they spent a lot of time at the home of a family friend. On one visit, a wild rabbit hopping around among the apple trees next to the house caught his eye. His grandmother handed young Hubby Guy a salt shaker and told him if he could get some salt on the rabbit’s tail the rabbit would stop and let Hubby Guy pet him. So, off went Hubby Guy with a dream and a salt shaker.

Unfortunately for Hubby Guy, no wild rabbits got petted that day. Because of my favorite joke, I have wanted very much to ask if he considered sneaking up on him, but I do not want to add insult to injury. For his one gullible young-self story, I have a heap of my very own. I get it. He was sold a faulty bill of goods and became the afternoon’s entertainment.

Dreams are a recurring topic in my thought life. I have heard and read a lot lately about chasing dreams. I have a big dream. When I am brave enough to entertain it, I feel inadequate. I can look in any direction on the internet and find 20 people doing what I dream of doing. Nevertheless… I pursue it.

Our dreams are all unique rabbits. A salt shaker will not be an effective tool. We can, however, you-nique up on them. What I mean by that is this – we are as unique as our dreams. There may be 20 people in any direction doing the same thing we dream of doing. There are, however, zero me’s doing what I dream of until I do it. There are zero you’s doing what you dream of until you do it. We each bring our unique set of circumstances, personalities, and life experiences to whatever we aspire to. Bob Goff is one of my favorite authors, and he likes to say, “There’s always room for more.”

I was at an event recently where I heard the women of Faithfully Restored share about their lives. What I was struck by is just how unique each of them was. They are regular people, not unlike ourselves, that are leveraging the hard parts of their lives to encourage, support, and inspire others. It is a really simple, doable premise that has turned into a really sweet ministry. I left there very inspired to keep putting myself out there, to keep leveraging my uniqueness to encourage, support, and inspire others. They didn’t hand me a salt shaker. They modeled how I can you-nique up on those wild dreams of mine.

There is only one you. No one can offer the world what you can offer. So, whatever it is hopping around that has your eye, take your uniqueness to it.